Legal News

With Soto in the Can, White House Steps up the Appointments

By Ashby Jones

Before we get to the news promised in the title, first, a bit of news to finish up on Sonia Sotomayor. We hope she’s not well into Day 2 of a three-day celebratory bender, as she’s got to pose not only for photographs, but television cameras during her swearing in ceremony on Saturday at the Supreme Court.

Wait, you say. Did we just say “television camera” in the same sentence as “Supreme Court. ” We did. Granted, it’s not exactly Justice Scalia blistering a lawyer with a verbal barb or Justice Thomas striking a silent, pensive pose, but it’s Cameras in the Court nonetheless. C-SPAN will air it, the BLT Blog reports, at 11 a.m.

In other news, President Obama has nominated five new federal judges.

Two of the judges will slot into the all-important vacancies on federal appellate courts. Jane Stranch (Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt Law), a partner at Nashville's Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings, has been tapped to fill a spot on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Federal district judge Thomas Vanaskie (Lycoming, Dickinson School of Law) of the Middle District of Pennsylvania has been picked for a vacancy on the the Third Circuit. Click here for the White House press release.

Obama also announced three picks for district judgeships in California. Two magistrate judges, Richard Seeborg (Yale, Columbia Law) and Edward Chen (Berkeley, Berkeley Law) have been nominated for the Northern District; and Dolly Gee (UCLA, UCLA Law), the managing partner at the Los Angeles firm of Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann & Sommers, has been picked for the Central District. Click here for the White House press release.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 07, 2009 (boomark / email).