Speculation abounded over potential nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States by President George W. Bush since before his presidency.
The Gang of 14 was a bipartisan group of Senators in the 109th United States Congress who successfully, at the time, negotiated a compromise in the spring of 2005 to avoid the deployment of the so-called "nuclear option" by Senate Republican Majority over an organized use of the filibuster by Senate Democrats.
Donald Wayne Lemons is a former associate justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia. He served as chief justice from 2015 to 2021. He received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia.
Todd Sunhwae Kim is an American attorney serving as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division. He earlier served as the first solicitor general of the District of Columbia for nearly 12 years. He was twice nominated by President Barack Obama for the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, but the Senate held no hearings on his nominations, which expired without action.
Catharina Jacoba Hendrika Dubbelday Haynes is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Kathleen McCree Lewis was an American lawyer and former federal judicial nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Glen Edward Conrad was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia and a former federal judicial nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
During President George W. Bush's two term tenure in office, a few of his nominations for federal judgeships were blocked by the Senate Democrats either directly in the Senate Judiciary Committee or on the full Senate floor in various procedural moves, including the first use of a filibuster to block a Federal Appeals Court nominee. Republicans labeled it an unwarranted obstruction of professionally qualified judicial nominees.
Carolyn Barbara Kuhl is a judge on the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles and a former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She became a Superior Court judge in 1995 and was nominated to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on June 22, 2001, by President George W. Bush.
Patricia Ann Millett is an American lawyer and jurist serving since 2013 as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She formerly headed the Supreme Court practice at the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Millett also was a longtime former assistant to the United States Solicitor General and served as an occasional blogger for SCOTUSblog. At the time of her confirmation to the D.C. Circuit, she had argued 32 cases before the United States Supreme Court. In February 2016 The New York Times identified her as a potential nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia.
Padmanabhan Srikanth "Sri" Srinivasan is an Indian-born American lawyer and jurist serving as the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Before becoming a federal judge, Srinivasan served as Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States and argued 25 cases before the United States Supreme Court. He was also a partner at the law firm O'Melveny & Myers and was a lecturer at Harvard Law School.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Commonwealth of Virginia enjoy the same rights as non-LGBT people. LGBT rights in the state are a recent occurrence with most improvements in LGBT rights occurring in the 2000s and 2010s. Same-sex marriage has been legal in Virginia since October 6, 2014, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal in the case of Bostic v. Rainey. Effective July 1, 2020, there is a state-wide law protecting LGBT persons from discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and credit. The state's hate crime laws also now explicitly include both sexual orientation and gender identity.
Stephen Richard McCullough is a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, former judge of the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and former career attorney in the Office of the Attorney General of Virginia. On March 10, 2016, the General Assembly of Virginia elected him to a twelve-year term on the Supreme Court, beginning March 3, 2016. His formal investiture occurred on May 23, 2016.
Kathryn Anne Oberly is a former Associate Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the highest appellate court for the District of Columbia.
Elizabeth Lee "Lisa" Branch is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She is a former judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals.
John Donley Adams is an American lawyer from Virginia. He is a partner at McGuire Woods, where he chairs the Government Investigations Department and co-chairs the Appellate Team. Adams ran for Attorney General of Virginia in 2017 and received the Republican nomination, but was defeated in the general election by incumbent Democrat Mark Herring. Adams is a member of the Adams political family.
Toby Jay Heytens is an American attorney and law professor who is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He served as the solicitor general of Virginia from 2018 to 2021.
Andrew Stephen Oldham is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and former General Counsel to Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Eric David Miller is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
