Judge 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 United States Senate Judiciary Committee today.

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 at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., Thursday morning.

The nominations will now move to the full Senate for confirmation.

This nomination is the second time her name has been put forward for the vacant seat on the federal bench. In 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.

Horan has been a judge on the county's Court of Common Pleas since 1996 and serves in the court's civil division and also has assumed its administrative duties.

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