I was very pleased to see that Elliot Gaiser was nominated to the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas. I've seen some suggestions that Elliot does not have sufficient ties to Texas to support the nomination. Federal district court judges are required to live in their district upon confirmation. Indeed, I can think a number of recent appointees who have been nominated to courts in districts where they did not live in, and may not have lived in since their childhood.
Still, I think it may be useful to lay out some of Elliot's ties to my adopted home state of Texas. You see, not all of us were fortunate enough to be born in Texas, but we all got here as quickly as we could.
For starters, I've known both Elliot and his wife Alexandra since before they started dating. He was at the University of Chicago and she was the University of Texas. (I spoke at both of their FedSoc chapters while they were students.) Indeed, Elliot and Alexandra started dating long distance with knowledge that they would both be clerking in Houston--Elliot for Judge Edith Jones and Alexandra for Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod. I got to know both of them even better during their clerkship year.
