Published on: Saturday, October 9, 2021

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted 54-46 to confirm Sarah Merriam’s nomination to a seat on the federal District Court in Connecticut (article available here).

Merriam, a U.S. Magistrate Judge and former federal public defender, is the first of President Joseph P. Biden’s three nominees to Connecticut’s federal bench to win confirmation. Votes are pending and expected for the other two: Sarala Vidya Nagala, Deputy Chief of the Major Crimes Unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office; and Omar A. Williams, a state Superior Court Judge.

Merriam has been a U.S. Magistrate Judge since 2015. Prior to that, she defended indigent clients in federal court from 2007 to 2015 and clerked for former federal appeals court judge and Gov. Thomas Meskill and District U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Thompson.

She attended Georgetown University as an undergraduate and law school at the University of Connecticut and Yale University.