Senate to vote on Judge Pratt Tuesday

The U.S. Senate plans to vote on a Marion Superior judge’s nomination for the federal bench on Tuesday, according to
a spokesman in Sen. Evan’s Bayh’s office.

Pratt

Senators agreed Thursday to consider the nomination of Marion Superior Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, whom the president chose
in January for the Southern District of Indiana to succeed Judge David F. Hamilton. Judge Hamilton was elevated to the federal
appeals bench late last year.

A roll-call vote is expected about 11:50 a.m. Tuesday, according to spokesman Brian Weiss in Bayh’s office in Washington,
D.C. Whether senators will discuss her nomination or proceed directly to a vote hasn’t yet been determined.

If confirmed, Judge Pratt would be the first African-American judge on the state’s federal bench. She currently presides
over the Marion Superior Probate Division, and has been in that role since serving a criminal division judge from 1997 through
2008, where she handled major felonies and presided over 20 to 35 jury trials a year. Judge Pratt was first elected in 1996,
but had served as a master commissioner in Marion Superior Court since 1993 after practicing privately.

This would be the final of three confirmations for Indiana’s federal bench, all of which President Barack Obama announced
in January. Earlier this week, the Senate confirmed Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson, a magistrate judge who joined the court in
2007 from Marion Superior Court. The president signed her commission this week. Senators in May confirmed banking attorney
Jon DeGuilio for a seat on the federal bench in the Northern District of Indiana.