WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a former member of the Senate Judiciary Committee (2007-2010), strongly applauded today’s Senate approval of U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis, which comes an unacceptable eight months after being reported unanimously out of committee and more than a year after being nominated by the president.
“Paula Xinis of Maryland is an excellent and impeccably qualified choice to serve as a U.S. District Court Judge. Reported unanimously by committee, the approval of her nomination should have been uncontroversial and decidedly swift. But instead of doing their job, Senate Republicans played politics with her confirmation and gave rise to an acute judicial emergency,” said Senator Cardin. “I am pleased that Paula Xinis finally will be able to join fellow jurists on the bench in Maryland. But it must not continue to take the Republican-led Senate three trimesters to deliver judgment on eminently qualified jurists. Our justice system and the citizens it serves deserve better.
“We need a fully functioning judiciary in Maryland and across the nation. The need for well-qualified judges like Ms. Xinis on benches across the nation is urgent,” noted Senator Cardin. “I hope that my colleagues will show the requisite respect to the role of our justice system by considering the many other qualified judicial nominees who still await a vote before the full Senate, including Marylander Merrick Garland for the United States Supreme Court.”
Ms. Xinis will occupy the seat formerly held by Judge Deborah Chasanow, who took senior status in October 2014.
MS. PAULA XINIS
Paula Xinis, of University Park, Maryland, joined the law firm of Murphy, Falcon & Murphy in Baltimore in 2011 as a senior trial attorney and became a partner in 2013. At Murphy, Falcon & Murphy, Xinis practices both civil and criminal litigation. Previously, Xinis served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Maryland from 1998 to 2011, where she also served as the Director of Training for the office from 2006 to 2011. Xinis began her legal career as a law clerk for Judge Diana Gribbon Motz of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1997 to 1998. She received her J.D. in 1997 from Yale Law School and her B.A. with highest distinction in 1991 from the University of Virginia.
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