Senate confirms Michelle Childs to DC appeals court
U.S. Court News
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed the nomination of South Carolina jurist Michelle Childs — recently under consideration for a slot on the U.S. Supreme Court — to sit on the federal court typically seen as a proving ground for the nation’s highest bench.
Senators, including a number of Republicans, voted 64 to 34 to approve Childs’ nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 17-5 earlier this year to advance her nomination.
Childs, 56, has been a federal judge on South Carolina’s District Court for more than a decade. Earlier this year, she was on a short list of candidates being considered by President Joe Biden for an upcoming vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, given the pending retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer.
Childs had a litany of high-profile advocates, including U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, on whose advice Biden pledged during the 2020 campaign to nominate a Black woman to the high court.
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Texas Adopts Statewide Texting-While-Driving Ban
Effective September 1, 2017, Texas will become the 47th state to pass a statewide ban on texting while driving. Governor Abbott’s signing of House Bill 62 is an effort to unify Texas under a uniform ban and remedy the “patchwork quilt of regulations that dictate driving practices in Texas.”
The bill specifically prohibits drivers from reading, writing, or sending an electronic message on a device unless the vehicle is stopped. That includes texting and emailing. It does not, however, prohibit dialing a number to call someone, talking on the phone using a hands-free device, or using the phone’s GPS system.
Violations would be punishable by a fine ranging from $25 to $99, to be set by each municipality. Although penalties could rise to as much as $200 for repeat offenders.
Studies have found that a driver’s reaction time is half as much when a driver is distracted by sending or reading a text message. According to state officials, in 2015 more than 105,000 traffic accidents in Texas involved distracted driving, leading to at least 476 fatalities.