The U.S. Senate voted 51-46 Tuesday to confirm Chicago attorney and former Assistant U.S. Attorney April Perry as a Chicago-based federal judge for the Northern District of Illinois.
When President Joe Biden signs his judicial commission, Perry, who holds a bachelor’s and law degree from Northwestern University, will become the eighth judge appointed by Biden in the Northern District of Illinois. She fills the seat vacated by Judge Nancy Maldonado, who was confirmed to the federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in July.
Perry served as an assistant United States attorney for 12 years in Chicago, prosecuting a range of crimes. She later worked as chief assistant state’s attorney and ethics officer in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and was general counsel for Morton Grove-based Ubiety Technologies, an intelligence company artificial. She is currently a senior advisor for global investigations and fraud and abuse prevention at GE HealthCare, based in Chicago.
Perry earned a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern in 2000 and a law degree from Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law in 2003. She then worked for a year as a law clerk for Judge Joel Flaum on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
In April, Biden nominated Perry to be a federal district judge after Sen. Richard Durbin recommended her for the judgeship. Perry’s appointment to the judgeship – a position for life – was done in a roundabout way. She was nominated last year to become the first female U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Her nomination remained stalled in the U.S. Senate — although it was rejected out of committee — after Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, who is now vice president-elect, objected to her nomination. He also said he had delayed all other appointments to the federal Justice Department because of the federal indictments against former President Donald Trump.
Vance later added that he was also opposed to Perry’s nomination as U.S. attorney because of his role in the Jussie Smollett case, where the “Empire” actor falsely claimed he had been the victim of a hate crime. Vance accused Perry of approving unethical decisions made by Perry’s office, then boss, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
After a prolonged delay in appointing Perry as U.S. attorney, the White House shifted gears and nominated her to a federal judgeship.
At Perry’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in July, she thanked Flaum for helping her learn how to become an effective judge.
“Judge Flaum taught me that a good judge places more importance on listening than on speaking, that he is patient and humble and that he always approaches things without ego,” he said. -she declared to the senators.
Tuesday’s vote, 51 to 44, fell largely — but not entirely — along partisan lines. Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski both supported Perry’s nomination. Three Republican senators, including Vance, missed the vote.
“April Perry was a very experienced and dominant candidate,” Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor and expert on federal judge selection, said after the vote. “She worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for a dozen years and led a few units in that office. Perry also worked in the Cook County District Attorney’s Office for several years. She had a smooth hearing in July and received a strong bipartisan approval vote from the Senate Judiciary Committee of 13-8.”
After the vote, Durbin released a statement in which he expressed that he and Senator Tammy Duckworth were proud to recommend Perry to the president.
“I am pleased that the Senate confirmed her to the federal bench,” he said. “She will be a fair and just arbiter of justice here in Illinois throughout her life.”
With Perry’s confirmation, there are currently no vacancies in the 23-judge Northern District of Illinois. During his term, Biden appointed eight judges to the court, but only seven currently hold the position as one of them, Maldonado, has since been promoted to the 7th Circuit.
Goldsborough is a freelance journalist.
