Gene E. K. Pratter

Gene Ellen Kreyche Pratter (born 1949 in Chicago, Illinois) is a judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Background

Judge Pratter received her bachelor's degree from Stanford University in 1971, and her Juris Doctor from University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1975.

She was appointed to the court by President George W. Bush on November 3, 2003, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania vacated by William H. Yohn. She was confirmed by the Senate on June 15, 2004, and received her commission on June 16, 2004. Prior to her appointment to the bench, she served as general counsel to the law firm of Duane Morris LLP.^[1]

Third Circuit nomination under Bush

On November 15, 2007, she was nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated by Judge Franklin Stuart Van Antwerpen, who assumed senior status in 2006.^[2] In February 2008, the liberal group Leadership Conference on Civil Rights sent a letter to the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, then chaired by Senator Patrick Leahy, D-VT. The group claimed that Pratter had as a district court judge, "exhibited a willingness to prematurely dismiss the claims of civil rights plaintiffs and to inhibit advocacy by their counsel, thus denying these plaintiffs access to a full and fair legal process."^[3] As a result, Leahy refused to process her nomination for the rest of the 110th Congress. In an act of reconciliation with the Senate Democrats, Bush withdrew her nomination in July 2008 in favor of Paul S. Diamond.^[4][5]

See also

• George W. Bush judicial appointment controversies

References

Sources

• Gene E. K. Pratter at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.