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Editor’s note: This article has been updated.
A pair of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana judicial vacancies have been filled after the U.S. Senate confirmed St. Joseph Superior Judge Cristal C. Brisco and Elkhart Superior Judge Gretchen S. Lund by wide margins on Wednesday and Thursday.
Lund was confirmed by an 87-6 vote Thursday morning, while Brisco was confirmed Wednesday evening with a 67-32 vote.
“That is a pretty strong bipartisan vote, and I think (Indiana Sen. Todd) Young’s support was critical,” Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond School of Law professor, said of Brisco’s vote.
According to Tobias, Lund received the smallest number of negative votes among the 127 Biden administration federal district judge nominees who received roll call votes.
Tobias said he did not detect any compelling reason for the different number of votes cast for Brisco and Lund, neither of whom were asked many questions in their Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.
He did note that Lund had been a state judge longer than Brisco.
A post on X by the Senate Judiciary Committee described Brisco as “currently a superior court judge and a former civil litigator, making her highly qualified to serve as a federal judge. She has bipartisan support and will help ensure a fair system of justice.”
Brisco currently presides in St. Joseph Superior Court 4, where she also serves as a Commercial Court judge. She was appointed to the bench in 2021 after having served as a magistrate judge in St. Joseph Circuit Court since 2018.
Before that, she was general counsel to Saint Mary’s College; corporation counsel for the city of South Bend; and in private practice with Barnes & Thornburg LLP.
Brisco is a 2002 graduate of Valparaiso University and a 2006 graduate of Notre Dame Law School.
In another post on X, the Judiciary Committee said of Lund, “With a dedicated career of service to Indiana as an accomplished jurist, Judge Lund earned bipartisan support for her confirmation. She is well suited to serve on the federal bench.”
Lund was elected in 2014 and took the bench in Elkhart Superior Court 4 in 2015. Before that, she had served as judge of the Goshen City Court since 2008.
She is a 1998 graduate of Butler University and a 2001 graduate of Valparaiso University School of Law.
At a December appearance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Brisco said her five years as a state judicial officer had taught her the importance of fostering a courtroom environment where everyone is treated with civility and respect.
“I view my role as keeping the temperature down so that I am able to fully listen to the arguments of counsel (and) keeping an open mind,” she said.
At that same hearing, Lund talked about her efforts in helping to establish Elkhart County’s first drug court for nonviolent offenders.
Lund said the program was created to help individuals take accountability for their actions while providing them with rehabilitation and treatment opportunities.
“It is our hope that through this we can restore lives and families and ultimately increase public safety by breaking the cycle of addiction,” she said.
Brisco and Lund will fill the vacancies created by Judges Theresa Springmann and Jon DeGuilio taking senior status on Jan. 23, 2021, and July 17, 2023, respectively.
Indiana Northern District Magistrate Judge Joshua P. Kolar — who was nominated in July 2023 to fill the vacancy on the 7th Circuit created by the 2022 death of Judge Michael Kanne — was scheduled for a Senate cloture vote Thursday.
Tobias said it was likely Kolar would have a confirmation vote Monday.
All three Hoosier nominees had to be renominated this month after Senate Republicans sent their nominations back to the White House in December.
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