The U.S. Senate voted along party lines Tuesday to confirm Bozeman attorney Katie Lane as a U.S. District Court judge for the District of Montana.
Nominated by President Donald Trump and endorsed by both of the state’s Republican senators, Lane, 34, will take over as one of Montana’s three federal district judges, lifetime positions that oversee criminal and civil proceedings.
A joint statement Tuesday from Montana Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy congratulated Lane on her appointment and called her “well-qualified to serve.”
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Bar Association gives thumbs-down to Katie Lane’s District Court nomination
Katie Lane, the Bozeman attorney nominated to U.S. District Court by President Donald Trump, has become the first judicial nominee of Trump’s second term to be rated unqualified by the American Bar Association. The ABA made its assessment public when it informed Senate Judiciary Committee leaders that Lane lacks the experience necessary to run a courtroom.
The confirmation, by a 52-46 vote, goes against the assessment of the American Bar Association, which has vetted nominees since 1953 and concluded in April that Lane lacked the legal experience for the job.
“Ms. Lane has less than eight years of experience in the trial courts and less than seven years as a litigator,” wrote Pamela J. Roberts, chair of the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary. “Ms. Lane has never tried a case as lead counsel, whether civil or criminal. Her trial experience consists of serving as fourth-chair counsel in a bench trial in 2025, where she briefly cross-examined one witness. She has first-chaired only one deposition.”
But Republicans in the U.S. Senate, along with President Trump, have accused the ABA of bias against conservatives, according to Reuters.
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The political path of U.S. District Court nominee Katie Lane
President Donald Trump has nominated Katie Lane for a U.S. District Court judgeship in Montana, lauding her recent work as senior legal counsel on the Republican National Committee. Lane’s nomination has received public support from Montana Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy and her former employer, Attorney General Austin Knudsen. Other elements of the legal community are questioning her experience.
Prior to her confirmation, Lane worked as an attorney at the Republican National Committee. She has also worked as an associate at prominent D.C. law firms and as a high-ranking lawyer at the Montana Department of Justice. Early in her career, she served on Daines’ campaign, and later on his staff, and worked as an intern at the law firm of now-Montana GOP chairman Art Wittich.
Lane will replace Susan Watters, who announced in 2025 that she would assume senior status, a form of semi-retirement for long-serving federal judges over 65.
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