Source: https://vettingroom.org/tag/district-of-kansas/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 11:57:13+00:00

Document:
John Broomes, a corporate lawyer based in Wichita, brings a diverse background to the bench, having worked in the U.S. Navy, as an engineer, and as a manager at Koch Industries before changing careers to become a lawyer. This experience makes Broomes an unusual choice for a judicial nominee.
John Wesley Broomes was born in New Orleans in 1969. Broomes attended the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering in 1991. Upon graduation, Broomes joined the U.S. Navy as a Lieutenant and Submarine Officer. After serving for five years, Broomes moved to Wichita, Kansas to be an Engineer and Ranch Supervisor at Castle Rock Ranch, Inc.
In 1997, Broomes left Castle Rock Ranch to move to the communications company Omnipoint Communications, Inc. as a Project Manager. He left the position that same year to Koch Industries, Inc., working as a Project Manager. In 2000, Broomes was elevated to be a Laboratory Manager.
In 2000, Broomes left Koch Industries, Inc. to attend Washburn University School of Law in Topeka. After graduating, Broomes served as a Law Clerk to U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald Bostwick on the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, and then to U.S. District Judge Monti Belot on the same court.
In 2007, Broomes joined the Wichita office of the Hinkle Law Firm LLC. as an Associate. In 2010, Broomes was elevated to be a Partner at the office, where he currently works.
Broomes has been nominated for a vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. This vacancy opened when Judge J. Thomas Marten moved to senior status on May 1, 2017, a move that had been announced a year in advance.
In December 2016, Broomes expressed his interest in a federal judgeship with Kansas Senators Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran. After interviews with Roberts and Moran, Broomes’ name was submitted to the White House. Broomes interviewed with the White House Counsel’s Office and the Department of Justice on May 19, 2017. He was officially nominated on September 7, 2017.
Broomes, a Republican, has donated both time and money to other Republicans running for office. Broomes discloses in his Senate Judiciary Questionnaire that he serves as Republican Precinct Committeeman for Payne Township, a position he has held since 2010. Furthermore, Broomes has served on the campaign committee of Kansas Republican Dennis Hedke. Broomes has also donated to former Republican Congressmen Mike Pompeo and Todd Tiahrt, as well as the Presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney in 2012, and Ted Cruz in 2016.
Other than his experience as a law clerk on the federal bench, Broomes’ primary legal experience is his ten years of practice at the Hinkle Law Firm. In this capacity, Broomes serves as an outside legal adviser for many large businesses, advising them on both transactional and litigation matters. Among the matters he has litigated, Broomes has taken on a number of complex cases involving the oil and gas industry, including a class action involving royalties, oil and gas lease disputes, and leasehold interests.
In one case, Broomes was named as a defendant in a fraudulent misrepresentation case involving his conduct as litigation counsel. Specifically, Broomes and the Hinkle Law Firm were sued by Paul Atkins, the defendant in a breach of contract case filed by Broomes, who argued that Broomes’ submissions of exhibits in the breach of contract action constituted “fraud upon the court.” The actions were ultimately dismissed by the federal trial judge and affirmed by the Tenth Circuit.
Both as a student and as an attorney, Broomes has written and published several legal articles. Most of these focus on natural resources, oil and gas rights, and resource rights. However, two of Broomes’ earlier articles address more controversial subjects, namely the interpretation of statutory language in the Clean Water Act, and the rights of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay.
The U.S. Supreme Court endorsed the right of terrorism suspects to seek the writ of habeas corpus in federal court in 2008.
As a Republican tapped for the federal bench by a Republican President, it can be surmised that Broomes will be a judicial conservative. However, Broomes’ writings suggest a willingness to stray from conservative legal ideology. First, Broomes’ article on Solid Waste Agency suggests a willingness to embrace legislative history, in contrast with the well-outlined positions of Justice Clarence Thomas and the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who disfavored it. Furthermore, Broomes’ endorsement of habeas rights for Guantanamo detainees takes the position favored by the Supreme Court majority in Boumediene, and not the one embraced by the Court’s conservative bloc. While these writings are from very early in Broomes’ legal career, and while his views may have evolved from that point, they suggest a moderate conservative outlook on the bench. As such, Broomes should not expect much opposition in the confirmation process.
 Press Release, Kansas Bar Association, Hon. J. Thomas Marten Announces Decision to Take Senior Status (June 8, 2016) (on file at https://www.ksbar.org/news/292977/Hon.-J.-Thomas-Marten-Announces-Decision-to-Take-Senior-Status.htm).
 Center for Responsive Politics, https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=john+broomes (last visited Nov. 12, 2017).
 Wallace B. Roderick Irrevocable Trust v. XTO Energy, Inc., Case No. 08-cv-01330, 2016 WL 4039641 (D. Kan. July 28, 2016).
 Hall Penderosa, LLC. v. Petrohawk Properties, L.P., 90 So. 3d 512 (La. Ct. App. 2012).
 Perionnet v. Matador Res. Co., 144 So. 3d 791 (La. 2013).
 See Atkins v. Heavy Petroleum Partners, LLC., 635 Fed. Appx. 483, 485-86 (10th Cir. 2015).
 John W. Broomes, Navigating in Isolated Waters: Section 404 of the Clean Water Act Revisited, 41 Washburn L.J. 209 (Fall 2001).
 Broomes, supra n. 9 at 223.
 John W. Broomes, Maintaining Honor in Troubled Times: Defining the Rights of Terrorism Suspects Detained in Cuba, 42 Washburn L.J. 107 (Fall 2002).
The American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Judiciary has been evaluating judicial candidates since 1953, as a way of providing an independent view of their qualifications. As a part of their criteria, the Committee sets a baseline of “at least twelve years’ experience in the practice of law.” Holly Lou Teeter, the federal prosecutor tapped by President Trump for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, falls narrowly short of that mark, with only eleven years of legal practice.
Teeter was born Holly Lou Hydeman in Kansas City, KS in 1979. In 1996, Teeter began taking classes at Johnson County Community College (which she would do for the next four years). In 1998, Teeter matriculated at the University of Kansas, graduating with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 2002. Upon graduation, Teeter attended the University of Oxford for a year-long diploma program, receiving a Diploma in Legal Studies in 2003.
Teeter returned to Kansas to attend the University of Kansas School of Law, graduating first in her class in 2006. Upon graduation, Teeter took a non-litigation patent law clerk position at Los Alamos National Security LLC., the corporation that operates the Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Department of Energy. In 2007, Teeter joined the Kansas City office of Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLC., working in intellectual property litigation.
In 2011, Teeter was hired to be a Law Clerk for Judge Carlos Murguia in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. In 2013, Teeter was then hired by Judge Brian Wimes of the U.S. District Court for the Western and Eastern Districts of Missouri to serve as his law clerk.
In 2016, Teeter was hired by U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson to serve as an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) in the Civil Division of the Western District of Missouri. Teeter currently serves in that capacity.
The seat Teeter has been nominated for opened on April 22, 2014, with Judge Kathryn Vratil’s move to senior status. On January 28, 2016, President Obama nominated Terrence Campbell, an attorney in private practice, and a Republican, to fill the vacancy. Despite Campbell having the support of Republican Senators Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran, he nonetheless never received a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On December 7, 2016, Campbell withdrew his nomination.
In January 2017, Teeter discussed her interest in a federal judgeship with Roberts. After interviews with Roberts and Moran, Teeter’s name was submitted to the White House. Teeter interviewed with the White House Counsel’s Office and the Department of Justice on April 27, 2017. She was officially nominated on August 3, 2017.
As Teeter did not engage in litigation as a patent law clerk, and as her clerkship experience is largely shielded from public view, Teeter’s record in court spans only five years, with a four year window in private practice, and a year as an AUSA.
Teeter’s time at Shook, Hardy & Bacon was focused on intellectual property litigation. Among her more significant matters, Teeter successfully represented Cerner Corporation in seeking a declaratory judgment that its monitoring system for intensive care unit patients did not infringe on any patents. Teeter also defended a group of hospitals against an infringement suit based on a patent for portable processing means.
As an AUSA, Teeter works in the Civil Division, defending the United States against civil claims. In one case, Teeter successfully defended the government against charges that it should be held liable for the plaintiff’s false arrest, imprisonment, and assault by the United States Marshalls.
As noted above, Teeter falls narrowly short of the experiential requirements laid out by the ABA. However, while this may affect the ABA rating Teeter receives, it is unlikely to jeopardize her confirmation. While skeptics may question Teeter’s youth and inexperience, she is not the youngest nominee put forward by the Trump Administration. Furthermore, Teeter’s supporters will note Teeter’s stellar academic credentials, and her substantive experience clerking on the federal bench for five years. Additionally, the fact that Teeter has clerked only for judges nominated by Democratic presidents may reassure senators of her overall moderation. As such, with Roberts and Moran strongly in her corner, it is unlikely that Teeter will face many problems through the process.
 American Bar Association, Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary: What It Is, and How It Works, (2009), https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/scfedjud/federal_judiciary09.authcheckdam.pdf.
 Press Release, White House, President Obama Nominates Terrence J. Campbell to Serve on the United States District Court (Jan. 28, 2016) (on file at https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov).
 Associated Press, President Obama Nominates Lawrence Attorney Terrence Campbell to Federal Bench, Lawrence Journal-World, Jan. 29, 2016, http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2016/jan/29/president-obama-nominates-lawrence-attorney-federa/.
 Peter Hancock, Lawrence Attorney Withdraws as Nominee for Federal Judgeship, Lawrence Journal-World, Dec. 7, 2016, http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2016/dec/07/lawrence-attorney-withdraws-nominee-federal-judges/.
 See Cerner Corp. v. Visicu, Inc., 667 F. Supp. 2d 1062 (W.D. Mo. 2009).
 Brown v. Baylor Health Care Systems, 662 F. Supp. 2d 669 (S.D. Tex. 2009).
 See Wright v. United States, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75724 (W.D. Mo. 2017) (Judge Hays).

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.