WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Tuesday nominated John Kness, the general counsel of the College of DuPage, to serve as a federal judge in the Chicago-based Northern District of Illinois.
Before law school, Kness was a patrol officer for the Oak Park Police Department.
Kness may face an easy path to confirmation because Trump tapped him only after he passed muster with a screening committee organized by Illinois Democrats Sen. Dick Durbin, a member of the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
Under a “3-to-1” agreement, the Illinois Democrats get one of their picks for every three favored by the Trump White House. Kness counts as the GOP pick.
Before DuPage, Kness was a federal prosecutor based in Chicago, handling national security, cybercrimes, narcotics and other criminal cases.
After receiving his undergraduate and law degrees from Northwestern University, he clerked for Judge William Pryor, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
