U.S. District Judge Julianna Michelle Childs, who presided over a number of Department of Energy nuclear cases in South Carolina, and who was publicly discussed as a contender for a U.S. Supreme vacancy, has won confirmation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Childs was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit in a 64-to-34 Senate vote on July 19, according to a notice on a Congressional website.
“With over 15 years of experience on the bench, Judge Childs is exceptionally qualified to serve on the D.C. Circuit,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a July 19 press release. Durbin said Childs enjoyed the backing of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) who also serves on the judiciary panel. Childs’ nomination advanced out of the Judiciary Committee May 26 on a 17-to-five vote.
Earlier this year both Graham and fellow Republican Tim Scott (R-S.C.) publicly embraced the idea of President Joe Biden, who at the time was looking at African American women to succeed the retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, nominating Childs for the post.
Biden, who had nominated Childs to the D.C. Circuit in January to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Judge David Tatel, eventually went with D.C. Circuit Court Judge Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the high court. The U.S. Supreme Court is an independent branch of the federal government.
While a federal district judge, Childs presided over litigation concerning COVID-19 vaccination policy imposed by Savannah River Site prime, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions. Childs refused to block the vaccination policy last year. In 2018 the judge also temporarily blocked a federal plan to cancel the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at Savannah River.
