WGNO

Wendy Vitter to appear before Senate Judiciary Committee this week for confirmation hearing

Wendy Vitter photo courtesy KATC

WASHINGTON — Wendy Vitter, the attorney nominated by President Trump to serve as U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans, will go before a Senate committee for her confirmation hearing this week.

Her hearing is set for 9 a.m. Wednesday, April 11.

Vitter, who currently serves as general counsel for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, is the wife of former U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Metairie Republican who gave up his seat in the Senate in 2015 for an unsuccessful bid for governor.

She previously served in the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office, beginning as a law clerk and ultimately rising to chief of the Felony Trials Division.  During that period, she focused on homicide prosecutions and litigated over 100 jury trials.

Previously, Vitter practiced maritime and complex litigation at a boutique firm.

Planned Parenthood and other reproductive rights groups have opposed Vitter’s nominations because of her anti-abortion stance and her opposition to construction of a Planned Parenthood center in New Orleans.

Both Louisiana senators — Sen. Bill Cassidy and Sen. John Kennedy — support Vitter’s nomination.

“Mrs. Vitter has done very important work as a prosecutor and as legal counsel for the Archdiocese of New Orleans,” said Kennedy, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee.