WASHINGTON – The Senate confirmed the nominations of Circuit Judges Stephen McGlynn and David Dugan to serve at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois in separate votes of 55-41 on Wednesday.
President Trump formally nominated them in February to fill vacancies of retired federal judges David Herndon and Michael Reagan. Hearings for McGlynn and Dugan were held in Judiciary on June 24. They passed out of Judiciary on July 30.
Their confirmations will create vacancies in St. Clair County that could potentially be filled through the recommendation of Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier, who is retiring at the end of his term in December.
McGlynn, first elected to a six-year term in St. Clair County in 2014, has presided over civil and criminal cases. His name is set to appear on the general election ballot in the five-county Twentieth Judicial Circuit for retention to a second six-year term.
He earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Dayton and a law degree at St. Louis University, and previoulsy practiced with brother Michael McGlynn in Belleville.
The Supreme Court appointed him to a Fifth District Appellate Court vacancy in 2005, but Bruce Stewart defeated him in a race for a full term the following year.
McGlynn ran for the Fifth District again in 2012, and lost to Judy Cates.
In 2013, the Supreme Court appointed him to replace St. Clair County judge Michael Cook, who resigned in the face of heroin possession charges.
County voters gave him a full term in 2014.
Dugan was elected to a six-year term in November 2018, for the seat that had been held by now Fifth District Appellate Court Judge John Barberis.
He had been appointed to Barberis’ circuit judge seat in March 2017 by the Illinois Supreme Court, upon the recommendation of Chief Justice Lloyd Karmeier.
Prior to his time on the bench, Dugan had worked in private practice since 1986, mostly in civil litigation. He also served as a part-time assistant state’s attorney.
Dugan received a degree in political science in 1982 from Eastern Illinois University. He earned his law degree from Valparaiso University School of Law in 1985.