Judicial appointments and nominations

FILE - In this May 18, 2017 file photo University of California President Janet Napolitano attends a meeting of the UC Board of Regents in San Francisco. Napolitano has announced she plans to step down in August 2020. The former U.S. secretary of homeland security and Democratic governor of Arizona made the announcement Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019, at a meeting of the university's Board of Regents. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2018, file photo Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh sits with fellow Supreme Court justices for a group portrait at the Supreme Court Building in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2018, file photo Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh sits with fellow Supreme Court justices for a group portrait at the Supreme Court Building in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

White House lawyer Steven Menashi, President Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, appears for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019. Menashi's guarded responses were frustrating at times to both Democrats and Republicans on the Judiciary panel. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump's first appointee to the high court, speaks to The Associated Press about events that have influenced his life and the loss of civility in public discourse, in his chambers at the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. Gorsuch has written a new book on the importance of civics and civility, and a defense of his preferred originalism method of interpreting laws and the Constitution. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - In this March 26, 2019, file photo, actor Jussie Smollett smiles and waves to supporters before leaving Cook County Court after his charges were dropped in Chicago. Smollett's attorneys have filed a motion this week arguing that the actor should not have to pay the city of Chicago $130,000 for the police investigation into what he claimed was a racist and homophobic attack in January, because he had no way of knowing how much time and money the department would spend on the probe. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty, File)

Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks about her work and gender equality following a ceremony where she received a SUNY Honorary Degree from the University at Buffalo, Monday, Aug. 26, 2019, in Buffalo N.Y. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

FILE - In this Aug. 10, 2019, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., speaks at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa. Gillibrand says she's dropping out of 2020 presidential race amid low polling, fundraising struggles. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 19, 2016, file photo U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is introduced during the keynote address for the State Bar of New Mexico's Annual Meeting in Pojoaque. The Supreme Court announced Aug. 23, 2019, that Ginsburg has been treated for a malignant tumor. (AP Photo/Craig Fritz, File)

FILE - In this March 26, 2019, file photo, actor Jussie Smollett smiles and waves to supporters before leaving Cook County Court after his charges were dropped in Chicago. An Illinois judge seems close to appointing a special prosecutor to look into why state prosecutors abruptly dropped charges against Smollett accusing him of staging a racist, anti-gay attack against himself. A hearing Friday, Aug. 23 will be one of the first opportunities for Judge Michael Toomin to name someone since his surprise ruling in June that a special prosecutor was warranted. Among the options available to a special prosecutor would be to restore charges against Smollett. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty, File)