Obama Nominates Two to District Courts in California

[usregimechange]

President Obama has sent seven district court nominations to the Senate, including two in the Northern District of California.

The White House said Wednesday that the president renominated U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward Chen to the district court, and tapped Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Lucy Haeran Koh to join the federal bench.

If confirmed, Chen would fill a vacancy created by the resignation of District Judge Martin J. Jenkins, who joined the state Court of Appeal in 2008. Koh—a former assistant U.S. attorney in California’s Central District—would fill a vacancy created when Judge Ronald M. Whyte took senior status in 2009.

Obama first nominated Chen last August, but the nomination was returned when the Senate concluded its session at the end of the year. The Senate Judiciary Committee had given Chen its backing in October, but on a roll call vote of 12-7 that was split along party lines.

Chen was a civil litigator for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Northern California Chapter from 1985 until he became a magistrate judge in 2001.

http://www.metnews.com/articles/2010/judg012210.htm


Koh is yet to get a hearing in the Judiciary Committee but Chen will likely get an up or down in committee on 02/04 as he was held over last week along with Louis Butler (Western District of Wisconsin). Butler and Chen were blocked by Republicans but Obama renominated both along with Dawn Johnsen (Assistant AG, Office of Legal Counsel). Senate Dems will likely have to force a vote to get them through.