President Biden has nominated Julie Rikelman, the lawyer who unsuccessfully defended abortion rights before the Supreme Court, to a federal appeals court.
Ms. Rikelman has a long record defending abortion rights. She worked for the pro-choice Center for Reproductive Rights since 2011.
Mr. Biden now wants her on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes the Districts of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico and Rhode Island.
She argued before the high court in December in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, where she represented the Mississippi clinic opposing the state’s 15-week ban on abortion.
The justices subsequently ruled against Ms. Rikelman, upholding the state’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks and overruling the landmark 1973 case of Roe v. Wade, which gave women a national right to abortion.
Ms. Rikelman was born in Ukraine and attended Harvard.
Mr. Biden also named Maria Araujo Kahn, a Connecticut Supreme Court justice, for the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals along with seven other district court nominations.
It was his 24th list of federal judicial appointments since taking office in January of 2021.
Mr. Biden has had 17 appeals court judges and 54 district court judges confirmed thus far, as well as his Supreme Court nominee, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, appointed to the nation’s highest court.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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