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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowJames Sweeney, partner at Barnes & Thornburg, has been confirmed to the Southern Indiana District Court. He was nominated by President Donald Trump in November 2017.
The U.S. Senate passed Sweeney on a unanimous voice vote a little after 5 p.m. Tuesday. Indiana Sen. Todd Young was presiding over the session.
Sweeney will fill the vacancy created when Judge Sarah Evans Barker took senior status in June 2014. He is the first judge to join the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana since June 2010, when now-Chief Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson and Judge Tanya Walton-Pratt were sworn in.
A 1983 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Sweeney served in the U.S. Marine Corp until 1992 and continued in the reserves until 2013. He received his J.D. degree from Notre Dame Law School in 1996.
Young, a Republican, and Sen. Joe Donnelly, a Democrat, released a joint statement praising Sweeney’s qualifications.
“As a fellow Marine and Naval Academy grad, I can say with great confidence that Jim is the right public servant to serve Indiana’s Southern District. I am pleased that the Senate voted to confirm him today, and I am eager for him to get to work relieving one of the most overworked courts in the nation,” Young said.
“I am pleased that the Senate confirmed Jim Sweeney to serve the Southern District of Indiana. With his commitment to public service, work ethic, and strong desire to administer justice in the courts, I am confident he will serve Hoosiers in the Southern District well,” Donnelly said.
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