Vermont Gov. Phil Scott announced two appointments to the Vermont Supreme Court, naming Christina Nolan and Michael Drescher to fill vacancies on the five-member state high court, according to an announcement released Monday.
The appointments require confirmation by the Vermont Senate, Scott said in a release. He said the nominations are intended to maintain public trust in what he described as “a fair and independent legal system,” and he said both nominees “demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to public service, the rule of law, justice and will be great additions to the Court.”
Nolan will fill one of the seats created by Justice William Cohen’s retirement late last year, the AP report said. The second nomination is tied to vacancies created by Justice Karen Carroll’s retirement a few months earlier, leaving two openings on the court.
Nolan served as U.S. attorney for Vermont from 2017 to 2021, during the first President Donald Trump administration, the release said. After her federal prosecutor role, she returned to private practice, working for the law firm Sheehey Furlong and Behm, the announcement said, and she previously had joined the U.S. attorney’s office in Vermont in 2010.
The release also said Nolan was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the top federal prosecutor role in 2017. It said she later ran an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2022 in the Republican primary.
In her response in the governor’s release, Nolan said the appointment would allow her “to continue to make a positive difference in the lives of Vermonters and to uphold the rule of the law and the Constitution,” and she said, “I am humbled by the Governor’s confidence in me and by this new opportunity to serve the state I call home.”
Scott named Michael Drescher for the second vacancy. The AP report said Drescher has worked as a federal prosecutor in Vermont for more than two decades and took over as the state’s top federal prosecutor last year after Trump took office, first as acting U.S. attorney.
Late last year, after serving the maximum amount of time allowed by law in the acting role, the release said Drescher’s title changed to first assistant U.S. attorney. The report said he insisted he was still in charge of overseeing the Vermont office after the title change.
The AP report said it is unclear why Trump did not put forward Drescher’s name for confirmation to the U.S. Senate for the U.S. attorney role on a permanent basis, adding that the U.S. Department of Justice website currently lists the U.S. attorney for Vermont post as vacant.
Scott said Nolan and Drescher were forwarded to him on a list of candidates deemed well-qualified by the Judicial Nominating Board. The AP report said Drescher has taken the lead in enforcing U.S. Justice Department policies in Vermont during his tenure, including immigration enforcement and federal charges that carry the death penalty for the first time in cases in the state in years.
In the release, Drescher said, “I have spent the last 30 years working with and appearing before Vermont judges in state and federal courts,” and he added, “Drawing on that experience, I pledge to help lead a court system in which everyone is treated with dignity and respect, justice is administered fairly and efficiently, and individual rights are protected.”