Another North Dakotan likely new appellate judge
After Judge Ralph Erickson announced that he intends to transition to senior status when his replacement on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals is confirmed, it was unclear when that would occur.
President Trump has wasted no time in nominating his successor, recently naming U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor as his choice. Both of North Dakota’s U.S. Senators — Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven — have announced their support for Traynor’s nomination.
The Eighth Circuit includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Arkansas.
Deep North Dakota roots
Like Erickson, Traynor is a North Dakota native with deep ties to the state. His chambers for the US District Court are in the state’s capital city — Bismarck. He originally hails from Devils Lake and is a University of North Dakota graduate and also graduated, with distinction, from the UND School of Law, where he was associate editor of the North Dakota Law Review. His father, Jack Traynor, also an attorney, was a long-time North Dakota legislator.
After law school, the nominee clerked for North Dakota Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerald VandeWalle. He then practiced law and was a shareholder in the firm started by his father in Devils Lake.
Traynor’s judicial career path follows a pattern of replacing distinguished jurists nearing retirement. He was nominated to his current post on the federal bench during Trump’s first term, succeeding federal Judge Daniel Hovland, who took senior status.
A fitting choice, but will confirmation be swift?
Traynor’s conservative bona fides likely played a role in Trump’s prompt nomination, following Erickson’s announcement. He was bold enough, last year, to voice concerns about the left-leaning stances of the American Bar Association.
It’s not news that our nation is bitterly divided, politically, nor that the margin of majority for Republicans in the US Senate is narrow. Another interesting factor watched carefully by political insiders is potentially wavering support for the President by some members of the Senate, including some “lame ducks”, some of whom have him to thank for that status after supporting their primary opponents. What role all of that will play in the speed or success of Traynor’s nomination is yet to be seen.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to support his nomination to the federal bench in September 2019, by a slim 12-10 vote. Confirmation by the full Senate followed, a month later, by a somewhat more comfortable 51-41 margin. But gone are the days of the Senate coalescing around qualified judicial nominees, even those with whom they may disagree. Sadly, gone, also, are the days when judges stayed above politics, or at least tried to.
The degree to which partisan divisions and inter-party squabbles in Washington will affect nominations such as Traynor’s is yet to be seen. If they do, it may delay Erickson’s move to senior status, which would not be a bad thing.
One thing is clear — Dan Traynor is well qualified, distinguished, at the peak of his career and, if confirmed, likely to serve on the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals for a long time. For North Dakota and for America, that would be a good thing.