Staff Photo by Maura Friedman/Chattanooga Times Free PressIn this file photo Travis McDonough announces an agreement had been reached between the city and the owner of the Delta Queen at a news conference in City Hall in Chattanooga.Judge Travis McDonough will soon take his seat in the first-floor federal courtroom of the Joel Solomon Federal Courthouse here in Chattanooga.
McDonough, the former chief of staff for Mayor Andy Berke, was unanimously confirmed as the newest U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee by the U.S. Senate on Monday.
Berke says McDonough has both a keen legal mind and "an unparalleled commitment to fairness." U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, says he "represents the best of East Tennessee." Tennessee Republican Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander spoke for him in Senate proceedings, both saying he will serve well as a fair and independent judge.
The Senate's 89-0 vote for the former Miller & Martin lawyer, Vanderbilt law school and University of the South at Sewanee graduate speaks volumes. Both for McDonough and the Senate. Perhaps bipartisanship is still alive, after all.