El Paso Judge Leon Schydlower receives strong support for Senate judiciary committee

El Paso federal Magistrate Judge Leon Schydlower is on the verge of being confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a federal district court judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas after a strong showing of bipartisan support from the Senate judiciary committee.

Schydlower, who is currently a federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, and U.S. Department of Justice Senior Attorney Advisor Ernesto Gonzalez both received 20-1 votes from the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary during a Feb. 29 committee meeting in Washington D.C.

Both men were nominated in December by President Joe Biden for federal district court judicial seats for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Schydlower and Gonzalez appeared before the committee in January to answer member questions. The committee voted late last week to send the nominees to the U.S. Senate for confirmation.

The  U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas includes El Paso, Austin, San Antonio and Del Rio.

The only committee member to oppose the two nominees was U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, who voted against all the judicial nominees discussed during the hearing. Hawley could not immediately be reached for comment.

"The votes were very strong for the two of them," said Carl Tobias, Williams Chair in Law at the University of Richmond's School of Law. "Each of them received a 20 to one vote, which is incredible."

More: What you know to know about money being donated in El Paso District Attorney race

The majority vote from the committee was due in large part from the strong support of the nominees by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Tobias, a prominent national law scholar with an emphasis on federal judicial selection.

"Sen. Cornyn took the lead on the two Texas nominees for the Western District and he pointed out that both of them were strongly recommended by the Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee that he and Sen. (Ted) Cruz, (R-Texas) rely on to collect applications, then interview and make recommendations to the senators and then the senators recommend to the White House who they would like to have nominated," Tobias said. "They were strongly recommended by the committee and then strongly recommended to the White House by the senators. The strong support by the two Texas Republican senators, especially Cornyn, seemed to be very persuasive, especially to the Republicans on the committee."

Cornyn touts legal experience of both nominees

Prior to the votes on each nominees, Cornyn encouraged his fellow committee members to vote to approve both nominees because of their decades of legal experience and knowledge of border issues impacting the Western District of Texas.

"Judge Schydlower was a product of a recommendation from the Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee, a bipartisan Federal Judicial Evaluation Committee," Cornyn told the Senate judiciary committee. "He's a magistrate judge in El Paso and highly qualified for this position. He deserves the unanimous support of this committee and that's what I ask for. For each of our colleagues to vote in favor of his nomination."

Schydlower was nominated to fill the judicial seat left vacant from the passing of longtime El Paso federal Judge Philip Ray Martinez in 2021. The El Paso native and Hank High School graduate has served as a federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas since 2015.

He worked as a private practice lawyer from 2000 to 2015 and worked as a special assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Hawaii from 1998 to 2000. He has decades of legal experience in the military as a member of both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force. He served as an attorney and judge in the military for more than a decade.

More: 'Join me or I'll join you': 5 takeaways from Biden and Trump's dueling border showdown

Gonzalez is nominated to fill a vacancy in the Del Rio area of the Western District of Texas. Gonzalez is currently a senior attorney advisor for the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division, Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Section. He previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas from 2000 to 2003 and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas from 2003 to 2023.

"Mr. Gonzalez is a 30-year plus experienced prosecutor and somebody magnificently qualified for this position," Cornyn told the Senate judiciary committee. "He also is the embodiment of the American dream. His parents were farm workers, came to this country from Mexico in order to seek a better life."

No issues expected in full Senate confirmation process

The nominations of Schydlower and Gonzalez will now move forward to the full U.S. Senate for debate and then a final vote. Both nominees are expected to have a controversy-free confirmation hearing, Tobias said.

Cornyn strong support carried the nominees through the committee and will now guide them through the remaining confirmation process, Tobias said.

"There will not be any hold ups on these nominees," Tobias said. "Not when you have a 20 to one vote out of that committee. That hardly ever happens. All 11 Democrats (on the committee) vote for Biden's nominees because they agree with him. It's sometimes hard to pick up the Republican votes. But today I think everybody deferred to and was impressed by what Cornyn said and so that carried the day."

Schydlower and Gonzalez will likely be confirmed by the U.S. Senate in April, Tobias said.

"The next steps is they go to the floor of the Senate and there are not very many people ahead of them," Tobias said. "So I think it may not be March, but by April I believe they would then have debates, a cloture vote, which is just a vote to cut off debate, and then they could have confirmation votes, be confirmed and then start taking cases."

The urgent need for judges to fill vacancies in the Western District of Texas also will aid in getting speedy confirmations for both Schydlower and Gonzalez, Tobias said.

"They're all ready to be confirmed and pretty soon we'll have new judges in the Western District of Texas," Tobias said. "And that's great because they're both emergencies because the caseloads are so huge in the Western District of Texas. It would be really great to fill those seats and get good people in there hearing those cases."

Aaron Martinez may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com or on Twitter @AMartinezEPT.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Judge Schydlower receives strong support from judiciary committee