The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted 51-46 to confirm Chicago lawyer and former assistant U.S. Attorney April Perry to be a federal district judge for the Chicago-based Northern District of Illinois.
When President Joe Biden signs her judicial commission, Perry, who earned bachelor’s and law degrees from Northwestern University, will become the eighth judge whom Biden has appointed to 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 was an assistant U.S. attorney for 12 years in Chicago, prosecuting a range of crimes. She then worked as chief deputy state’s attorney and chief ethics officer for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office and was general counsel for Morton Grove-based Ubiety Technologies, an artificial intelligence firm. She currently is senior counsel of global investigations and fraud and abuse prevention at Chicago-based GE HealthCare 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 later 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 had recommended her for the judgeship. Perry’s nomination to be a judge — a position that carries a life tenure — came in a roundabout way. She was nominated last year to be the first female U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. Her nomination stalled in the U.S. Senate — despite being voted out of committee — after Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, who now is the vice president-elect, objected to her nomination. He also said he held up all other nominations in the federal Department of Justice because of federal indictments of former President Donald Trump.
Vance later added that he also was opposed to Perry’s nomination to be U.S. attorney because of her role in the Jussie Smollett case, where the “Empire” actor falsely claimed he was the victim of a hate crime. Vance accused Perry of rubber stamping unethical decisions made by the office of Perry’s then-boss, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
After a prolonged delay over Perry’s nomination to be U.S. attorney, the White House shifted gears and nominated her for a federal judgeship.
At Perry’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in July, she credited Flaum with helping her learn how to be an effective judge.
“Judge Flaum taught me that a good judge values listening more than talking, and is patient and humble, and always approaches things without ego,” she told senators.
Tuesday’s 51-44 vote was largely — though not entirely — along party lines. Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski both supported Perry’s nomination. Three Republican senators, including Vance, missed the vote.
“April Perry was a very experienced, mainstream nominee,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond and an expert on federal judicial selection, after the vote. “She served in the U.S. attorney’s office for a dozen years and led a few units in that office. Perry also served in the Cook County prosecutor’s office for several years after that. She had a smooth hearing in July and captured a strong bipartisan Senate Judiciary Committee approval vote of 13 to 8.”
After the vote, Durbin issued a statement in which he expressed that he and Sen. Tammy Duckworth were proud to recommend Perry to the president.
“I’m glad the Senate confirmed her to the federal bench,” he said. “She will be a lifelong, fair arbiter of justice here in Illinois.”
With Perry’s confirmation, there are no current vacancies on the 23-judge Northern District of Illinois. During his term, Biden has appointed eight judges to the court, but only seven currently are seated in that role because one of them, Maldonado, has since been promoted to the 7th Circuit.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.