Senate committee to vote on Justice David Stras' nomination for appellate court next week

A Senate committee is scheduled to vote next week on Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras' nomination for a federal appellate court seat, a little more than a month after he appeared on Capitol Hill for questioning.

The Senate Judiciary Committee announced Friday that it will vote on Stras and two other federal judge nominees on Thursday.

Stras' name appeared Friday on a list of 21 judicial candidates "renominated" by President Donald Trump after the Senate returned 100 federal nominees that were not acted on before the end of the 115th Congress.

Stras, who is also still on a Trump shortlist of U.S. Supreme Court considerations, committed to "interpreting and applying the law in an impartial manner" during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination late last year.

The hearing was held over the objections of former Democratic Sen. Al Franken, who in September announced that he would oppose Stras' nomination. In moving forward with the hearing, Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican committee chairman from Iowa, announced that he would not allow home-state senators to wield the traditional "blue-slip" veto over Circuit Court nominees.

Stras has been on the Minnesota Supreme Court since 2010 and has also served as a University of Minnesota Law School professor and worked in private practice in Minneapolis.

He is so far the only Minnesotan nominated by Trump for a federal judicial or law enforcement vacancy. Trump has yet to nominate candidates for two District Court vacancies that have been open since 2016, U.S. marshal or U.S. attorney, a seat that was vacated last March. Earlier this week, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions selected Gregory Brooker, who has served as Minnesota's acting U.S. attorney since Andrew Luger's departure, to continue on an interim basis.

Stephen Montemayor • 612-673-1755 Twitter: @smontemayor