District of Columbia Judicial Nominations Reform Act of 2025

This section would let the Act be called the "District of Columbia Judicial Nominations Reform Act."

This section would end the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission. It would do this by striking the section of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act that created the commission (section 434, D.C. Official Code section 1-204.34), so that commission would no longer exist in law. The section also makes several related changes. For choosing chief judges of the D.C. courts under section 431(b) of the Home Rule Act, it would remove the commission's role in that designation and give that role to the President instead, so the President, not the commission, would designate the chief judges. For nominating judges under section 433(a), it would remove the requirement that the President nominate from a list of people recommended by the commission, and remove the exception that referred to section 434(d)(1); the President would instead simply nominate judges directly, without a commission-recommended list. For the qualifications judges must meet under section 433(b), it would add the word "and" at the end of paragraph (3), delete paragraph (4) of that subsection, renumber the current paragraph (5) so it becomes the new paragraph (4), and remove from that renumbered paragraph the words referring to the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission, so that paragraph would no longer mention the commission. The section would also strike subparagraph (C) of section 11-1528(a)(2) of the D.C. Official Code, so that subparagraph would no longer apply. It would update the table of contents of the D.C. Home Rule Act to remove the listing for section 434. These changes would apply to judicial appointments made on or after the date this Act is enacted.