ATLANTA — The second of two nominations by President Joe Biden to the U.S. District Court in Atlanta was confirmed Thursday.
Sarah Geraghty, a rights lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights, was confirmed with a 52-48 vote. The other nomination, federal defender Victoria Calvert, was confirmed last week in a 50-46 vote.
The pair were first recommended to President Biden by Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and Sen. Raphael Warnock, and were officially nominated back in September.
In a statement, Ossoff said he was "confident Ms. Geraghty will apply the law impartially with integrity as a Judge in the Northern District of Georgia, and I wish her and her family the best upon her confirmation."
Warnock said he was "proud to have supported her nomination" and that "decades of working to seek justice for the people of Georgia will serve her well in this role."
Last week, when Calvert was confirmed, Warnock said she would bring "much-needed diversity to the Northern District bench that will help ensure Georgians get the justice they deserve."
Calvert is just the second Black woman to sit as a judge on the Northern District of Georgia federal court.
Prior to joining the Federal Defender Program, Calvert was an associate at Atlanta powerhouse legal firm King & Spalding. At the practice, according to the White House, she "represented clients in the Special Matters and Government Investigations group, and engaged in substantial pro bono work."
Calvert is a Duke University graduate who received her law degree from New York University Law School in 2006.
Geraghty has a long history with the Southern Center for Human Rights, which is based in Atlanta, most recently as its senior counsel. She graduated from Northwestern University in 1996, received a M.S.W. from the University of Michigan School of Social Work in 1998 and her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1999.