Senate Judiciary to send two Supreme Court nominees to full Senate with no positive recommendation

The Senate Judiciary committee debated confirmation of two nominees for the Vermont Supreme Court on Jan. 29 and voted to send both nominations to the full Senate without a positive recommendation.

Committee members spent the morning evaluating Christina Nolan and Michael Dresser. Lawmakers raised separate concerns for each nominee: Nolan’s past courthouse incident involving a firearm and Dresser’s role in high-profile immigration cases. Supporters cited Nolan’s prosecutorial and defense experience and Dresser’s long U.S. Attorney’s Office tenure; critics said those records raised questions about judgment and public trust.

Unidentified Senator 1 opened discussion of Nolan by asking the nominee to address questions about her career and a courthouse incident; the senator said Nolan “acknowledged that she had made a mistake” and undertook remedial steps, including completing a precharge program and firearm safety training. Multiple senators said that acknowledgement and subsequent actions weighed in favor of confirming Nolan.

For Dresser, committee counsel and other senators described his role responding to habeas petitions in immigration cases, explaining he acted in a defensive capacity to respond to writs rather than initiating immigration proceedings. Some members said that explanation, together with more than 20 years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, supported his candidacy; others disagreed. One senator summarized their position bluntly: “I cannot support the nomination.”

The committee debated how to report the nominations to the full Senate if a favorable recommendation failed. After motions and parliamentary discussion, the committee adopted a motion to report the nominations to the Senate with no recommendation rather than issuing a formal negative recommendation. The roll-call sequence recorded in committee was 3–2 in favor of reporting to the floor without a positive endorsement.

Chair remarks and a January 7 letter submitted for Dresser were cited during the debate as material bearing on state-court experience and related questions about how federal litigation can involve state-law issues. The committee agreed the chair or a designated senator would report an objective summary of each nominee’s resume, testimony and the committee’s deliberations to the Secretary when the nominations are transmitted to the floor.

The procedural decision means the full Senate will receive both nominations and will take the final confirmation votes. The committee did not adopt a positive recommendation for either nominee and did not make a formal negative recommendation; it will transmit its record and an objective report to the Senate clerk as planned.