Legislator Bill Mercer Confirmed to U.S. District Court Judgeship

Former Montana U.S. attorney Bill Mercer was confirmed to a U.S. District Court judgeship in a partisan vote by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday night. 

The Billings attorney, currently in his fourth term as a state representative, was confirmed 53 votes to 46, with Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, not voting. Mercer will replace U.S. District Court Judge Dana L. Christensen, who was appointed in 2011 by Barack Obama and will now move to senior status.

Mercer’s confirmation was a political win for Montana Sen. Steve Daines, who successfully blocked a 2024 attempt by Joe Biden to fill Christensen’s seat with attorney Danna Jackson. Jackson, an attorney for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, was touted as the first Indigenous judge nominated to Montana’s federal bench. Daines used his “blue slip” privilege as a senator from the nominee’s home state to oppose Senate consideration of Jackson.

On Wednesday, Daines told federal lawmakers Mercer is the right pick.

“His experience as a widely respected and effective member of the Montana House has helped him understand the needs of our state, our families and our communities,” Daines told senators before the vote. “I believe his time serving in Helena has given him an important perspective on the law and the importance of judicial impartiality.”

In Yellowstone County, Republicans plan to meet Nov. 5  to consider nominees to fill Mercer’s seat in the state Legislature. The seven-year lawmaker is a vice chair of the Interim Budget Committee on Health and Human Services. 

“I think we can put some good, strong names up before the commissioners,” said Yellowstone County Republican Central Committee Chair Pam Purinton, who posted an open invitation for candidates on the committee’s Facebook page Wednesday night.

Replacements for vacated legislative seats are selected by county commissioners, who interview three candidates submitted by the party of the legislator being replaced. The process usually takes a couple of weeks. The all-Republican Yellowstone County Commission made two legislative appointments for vacated Democratic seats in 2024 based on nominations from the Democratic Party.

Yellowstone County, Montana’s most populous with 173,000 residents, also has the most Republican voters of any county in the state. Purinton said Mercer will be consulted about his replacement. 

Appointed by George W. Bush, Mercer served eight years as U.S. attorney for Montana from 2001 to 2009. In the latter years of that tenure, Mercer simultaneously worked at Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, D.C., as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ acting associate attorney general, the third-highest position at DOJ.

Mercer’s absence from Montana angered the state’s chief U.S. district judge, Donald Molloy, who argued to Gonzales that Mercer, living with family in D.C., didn’t meet the residency requirement to be U.S. attorney in Montana.

Mercer returned to Billings in 2007 to focus on the Montana U.S. attorney job after then Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat, asked him to resign the post.

A second federal judgeship will soon open in Montana. Judge Susan Watters announced in July that she plans to assume senior status in 2026. Like Christensen, Watters is an Obama appointee.

 A Daines spokesperson said Wednesday that nominations to replace Watters haven’t yet been made.

This story originally appeared in the Montana Free Press, which can be found online at montanafreepress.org.