One of the tasks for U.S. senators is making recommendations for highly-sought-after federal judgeships.
Currently, Oregon’s senior senator, Democrat Ron Wyden, has a committee working on recommending the next federal judge to President Obama for his consideration. Today, Wyden’s office named the candidates for that position, which comes with a lifetime appointment.
Here is the list:
· Oregon Supreme Court Justice Thomas Balmer
· Attorney Dennis Balske
· Attorney Suzanne Chanti
· Assistant Federal Public Defender Lisa Hay
· Circuit Judge Marco Hernandez
· Circuit Court Judge Henry Kantor
· Circuit Court Judge Adrienne Nelson
· Circuit Court Judge Karsten Rasmussen
· Attorney Michael Simon
· Federal Public Defender Steven Wax
· Attorney Robert C. Weaver, Jr.
The buzz in legal circles is that Simon and Balmer are the leading candidates but Wyden’s office will not comment on the process until it’s complete.
Tags: Adrienne Nelson, Bob Weaver, Dennis Balske, Henry Kantor, Karsten Rasmussen, Lisa Hay, Marco Hernandez, Michael Simon, Robert C. Weaver, Ron Wyden, Steven Wax, Suzanne Chanti, Thomas Balmer
What about the recommendations for U.S. Attorney? Will Wyden employ the same committee that chose the judges? Will the committee use the same criteria as the president and Eric Holder have maintained, i.e., not only knowledge of the law but also empathy, compassion, and most of all, transparency.
If it were me, I’d picked Lisa Hay.
[...] reported earlier, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) took the lead on filling two judicial vacancies in U.S. [...]
[...] sixth person is Washington County Circuit Court Judge Marco Hernandez, who was on an earlier, larger list of candidates under consideration for these two vacancies. Hernandez also had been up for a federal judgeship [...]