U.S. Senate approves Sioux Falls lawyer for federal judgeship

Nominees for federal judgeships, from left, Sanket Jayshukh Bulsara of New York, Dena Coggins of California, and Eric Schulte and Camela Theeler of South Dakota participate in a hearing March 6, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy of U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee)

The U.S. Senate approved one of two federal judge nominees for South Dakota on Wednesday on a vote of 61-33.

Sioux Falls lawyer Eric Schulte will fill the impending vacancy of U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier, who announced her retirement last year and pledged to continue working until her replacement is appointed.

Schulte, a partner at Davenport Evans and former president of the State Bar of South Dakota, secured the approval of the Senate Judiciary Committee in April alongside another Sioux Falls nominee, state Circuit Court Judge Camela Theeler. 

A Senate floor vote on Theeler could come as soon as Thursday. Theeler would replace Jeffrey Viken in Rapid City, who retired last October. The U.S. District Court of South Dakota has relied heavily on “senior status” judges, retirees Lawrence Piersol and Charles Kornmann, to manage caseloads. 

South Dakota Republican Senators Mike Rounds and John Thune each voted to support Schulte. Typically, Democratic presidents rely on either Democratic elected federal office-holders or state Democratic party leaders to field nominees for federal judicial vacancies, but the initial candidates offered up by state Democrats fizzled without a formal nomination. 

Former South Dakota Democratic Party Chair Randy Seiler, a longtime federal prosecutor and one-time candidate for state attorney general who died unexpectedly last year, had most recently submitted the name of Veronica Duffy. She was and remains a federal magistrate judge. 

Rounds and Thune got involved last year, and the nomination process “went pretty quickly” after that, according to Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond School of Law who tracks federal judge nominations. 

“Some other nominees have waited a year,” Tobias said.

The Judiciary Committee endorsed Theeler 20-1 last month, with the only opposition from Missouri Republican Josh Hawley. Schulte had more resistance, passing through with a 12-9 vote. The only Republican who supported him was Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. 

There was a measure of uncertainty about Schulte for that reason, Tobias said, but the Wednesday vote came without controversy. There were two minutes of debate, and “nobody even talked about him.”

Tobias expects a smooth ride for Theeler, as “there was nothing controversial about her with a 20-1 vote.”

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