[JURIST] The US Senate confirmed Judges David McKeague [official website] and Richard Griffin [official website] to the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Thursday by 96-0 [roll call] and 95-0 [roll call] votes, respectively. The confirmations came the same day Senators approved former Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor's permanent appointment [JURIST report] to the Eleventh Circuit. McKeague was appointed as a federal district judge by former President George Bush in 1992 and nominated to the Sixth Circuit by President George W. Bush in 2001. Griffin was elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals in 1988, re-elected in 1996 and 2002, then nominated to the Sixth Circuit by Bush in 2002. Votes on both judges were delayed while Democratic Senators Carl Levin [official website] and Debbie Stabenow [official website] protested Republican refusal to hold hearings for two of former President Bill Clinton's judicial appointments to the Sixth Circuit. Levin and Stabenow have offered support for the judges, stating the protest was political, and not based on the qualifications of the nominees. The Detroit Free Press has more.