The Senate considered President Joe Biden’s nomination of Arianna J. Freeman to serve as a circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The Third Circuit is the most powerful federal court in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware besides the Supreme Court. Federal judges serve for life and the laws that protect our environment and democracy are only as strong as the judges who uphold and enforce them. Prior to her judicial service, Freeman was a long-serving federal public defender in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which includes Philadelphia. Public defenders are a critical bulwark for civil rights and civil liberties in a criminal justice system with pervasive racial disparities. As the first Black woman ever to serve on the Third Circuit, and as a career public-interest lawyer, Freeman brings personal and professional diversity to a judiciary that has long been dominated by White male judges appointed after careers in private law firms or as prosecutors. On September 29, the Senate confirmed Freeman to be a circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit by a vote of 50-47 (Senate Roll Call Vote 350). YES IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE.