WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden intends to nominate a Washington Court of Appeals judge to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, the White House said Wednesday.
Judge Rebecca Pennell, who has served on the appellate court in Eastern Washington since 2016, would fill a vacancy left on the federal court when the Senate confirmed Judge Salvador “Sal” Mendoza Jr. to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in September 2022.
Biden’s first nominee to replace Mendoza, Spokane County Superior Court Judge Charnelle Bjelkengren, withdrew from consideration after her nomination stalled in the Senate amid criticism from Republicans. During a confirmation hearing, Bjelkengren struggled to answer questions that her defenders saw as a partisan effort to derail her nomination, while critics said her responses were evidence she wasn’t qualified for the job.
Pennell grew up in the Tri-Cities and graduated from Richland High School before attending the University of Washington and Stanford Law School, according to her official bio. After earning her law degree, she studied Spanish in Mexico before returning to Washington to clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Robert Whaley.
From 2000 until 2016, Pennell worked as a public defender with the Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington and Idaho, representing people charged with federal crimes. In her last several years as a public defender, she helped develop federal drug court teams in Yakima and Richland, she wrote in her bio, a move that “fostered a desire to move away from litigation and towards collaborative decision-making.”
In 2016, Pennell was appointed to the Division III Court of Appeals in Spokane but continued to live and work in Yakima.
Sen. Patty Murray recommended Pennell for the position, Murray said in a statement Wednesday.
“Judge Pennell is a true public servant who has spent her career working to ensure that vulnerable people in Washington state can access a justice system that treats people fairly and works for everyone,” Murray said in a statement. “From growing up in Richland and attending college at UW, to serving in the Federal Public Defender’s office in Yakima and on the Court of Appeals in Spokane, Judge Pennell has deep ties to Washington state and a real depth of experience — all of which makes her an excellent choice to be a federal judge for the Eastern District of Washington.”
In a statement, the White House said Pennell’s nomination is part of Biden’s effort “to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country — both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds.”
Biden’s has nominated a disproportionate number of women and people of color to the federal judiciary, relative to the U.S. population. As of December, nearly two-thirds of Biden’s nominees were women and roughly the same portion were members of racial minorities.
In comparison, 84% of former President Donald Trump’s nominees were non-Hispanic white, according to the Pew Research Center, while that demographic makes up about 59% of the U.S. population, according to census data. Women represent just over half the nation’s population but were 24% of Trump’s judicial nominees.
To be confirmed to the federal bench, Pennell will need to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee. If a majority of the Democratic-controlled panel advances her nomination to the Senate floor, she would then need the support of a majority of the full Senate.
