Tiffany Cunningham, President Biden’s nominee to the Federal Circuit—the first nominee to that court in six years—is incredibly well qualified to join the bench of the court she once clerked for. She’s spent her career litigating patent cases for plaintiffs and defendants, working on high-tech and life sciences cases, and she’s universally well-respected by all who know her.
But there’s one more thing. During her nomination hearing, she was asked by Senator Grassley (R-IA) if it was appropriate for judges to actively seek to create favorable patent venues in their courts. (1:06:58). And her answer summarizes the ideal of a judge—judges should be “bound by the rule of law and just be focused on the facts of each case without really taking into consideration regarding what sorts of cases they might want to appear before them.”
It’s an answer in stark contrast to the practices of at least one other judge.
