Marilyn Horan

The nomination of Butler County Judge Marilyn Horan to fill a vacant seat on the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh was confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.

Horan was nominated by President Donald Trump alongside Judge Susan Baxter to serve on the federal bench in Pittsburgh, and both were confirmed with a voice vote with no opposition raised during the committee's executive business meeting Thursday morning.

The nominees now move to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.

This nomination is the second time Horan's name has been put forward for one of the vacant seats on the federal court in Pittsburgh. In July 2015, she and Baxter were both nominated by President Barack Obama.

But Republican leaders in the Senate refused to debate the nominees' confirmations or take a vote, and the matter languished on the floor of the chamber for months.

Both were then renominated by Trump in December.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., along with Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., issued a joint news release in December calling the nominations “critically important” and said seats on the court have been vacant for “far too long.”

In an email comment Thursday, Casey said, “this committee action brings us closer to filling these two seats. This success is a direct result of the bipartisan process that Sen. Toomey and I have engaged in to nominate qualified individuals to the federal bench.”

Toomey's office praised Horan's qualifications in an email statement Thursday.

“Sen. Toomey is pleased that Judge Horan's nomination to fill a vacancy on the bench in Pennsylvania's western district is proceeding,” according to the statement. “Along with a wealth of legal experience from her work in both the public and private sectors, Judge Horan possesses the acumen needed to excel as a federal judge.”

Horan received her juris doctorate in 1979 from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and earned a bachelor of arts degree from Penn State University in 1976.

She has been a judge on the county's Court of Common Pleas since 1996, and serves in the court's civil division. She also has assumed administrative duties from President Judge Thomas Doerr after Doerr recused himself from those duties following a lawsuit alleging sexual and workplace misconduct.

From 1979 to 1996, Horan worked at the law firm of Murrin, Taylor, Flach & Horan, where she made partner in 1982. The firm is now known as Murrin, Taylor & Gallagher.

Attorney Michael Gallagher said he became a partner in the firm after Horan became a county judge, and has practiced in front of her since then.

“She is a very good judge for Butler County, and I believe she will make an excellent federal judge,” he said.

Gallagher said Horan was the first woman elected judge in Butler County.

Baxter serves as a magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania.