Senate Judiciary Committee approves Nolan for high court;
Rejects Drescher, 3-2, and now both are on to full senate

By Michael Donoghue
Vermont News First

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the recommendation of attorney Christina Nolan, 5-0, on Thursday to become a Vermont Supreme Court Justice, but rejected attorney Michael Drescher, 3-2, to also serve on the high court.

The three Democrats on the committee said they had trouble supporting Drescher, a former First Assistant U.S. Attorney, because of two high-profile immigration cases that he was thrust into defending last year on behalf of the administration of President Donald J. Trump.

The chair, Sen. Nader Hashim, D-Windham, Sen. Phil Baruth, D-Chittenden and Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, D-Chittenden voted against the Drescher nomination.

Vice Chair Robert Norris, R-Franklin and Sen. Christopher Mattos, R-Chittenden/Franklin both supported Drescher.

There was irony in the votes because Nolan is a staunch conservative Republican and was appointed by President Trump during his first term to serve as U.S. Attorney for Vermont.

Drescher of Hinesburg has been apolitical when it comes to his politics during his 30 years of service both in private practice in Burlington and as a federal prosecutor.

There was a major letter-writing campaign by unhappy Vermonters with Drescher’s handling of the two immigration appeals when he suddenly found himself as Acting U.S. Attorney when Trump took office in January 2025.

Several senators said they now better understand how Drescher never filed the immigration cases and only was in court because the federal government was sued. For two senators it was enough to win votes, but for the rest it apparently wasn’t.

In a little-used procedural move in the legislature, Baruth asked the committee on Thursday to say it had no recommendation on the Drescher nomination.

Baruth, the Senate President Pro Temp, said because of the importance of the court post, he wanted the full 30-member senate to be able to vote on the Drescher nomination.

The motion indicating no recommendation was approved 3-2 with Hashim and Vyhovsky against.

No date has been set for the full senate vote.

The Democrats in 2024 had advanced the name of Drescher as one of four recommendations from a Vermont legal screening panel to President Joe Biden, a Democrat, to become a federal judge in Vermont. Biden said he was looking for public defenders, women and other minorities to fill federal judgeships and eventually picked a woman serving as a public defender in Rutland County.

For the high court, the Vermont Judicial Nominating Board last year had deemed both Nolan and Drescher as “well qualified” and forwarded their names to Gov. Scott for the high court.

The senators said they had been flooded with calls and letters.

Nolan and Drescher also faced some minor opposition by supporters of a few Vermont state judges who believed they should be given preference to the high court and had been beaten out.

Others noted current Chief Justice Paul Reiber came from private practice, and former Chief Justice Jeff Amestoy was plucked out of the Vermont Attorney General’s Office. Former Associate Justice John Dooley also came from the Governor’s office.

Hashim said he was satisfied with the explanation Nolan provided the committee for her forgetting she had a loaded handgun in her bag when she entered a state courthouse in Brattleboro last year.

Nolan said she was never charged and instead took a gun safety class.

Nolan of Burlington while U.S. Attorney was often at odds with Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George, considered the state’s most liberal prosecutor.

Vyhovsky said she did not like that Drescher had appeared at a Tampa, Fla. press conference in September that highlighted the good work of federal prosecutors across the nation with serious human trafficking cases.

Drescher was on vacation in California when he and four other federal prosecutors were summoned by Attorney General Pam Bondi to Florida.

Drescher highlighted the case of a woman indicted on 7 counts involving a major human smuggling operation, including transporting young children, along the northern U.S. border. The press conference was to show what federal authorities have undertaken to try to stem the tide of illegal human smuggling and to make the country safer.

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