The Senate confirmed President's Obama's first circuit court nominee to the bench today, voting 94-3 to send Gerard Lynch of New York to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.

Voting no were Republicans Jim Bunning of Kentucky and Oklahomans Tom Coburn and James M. Inhofe.

As was the case last week when the Senate Judiciary Committee approved two judicial nominees on the first try, Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., could not resist castigating Republicans for delaying judicial nominations.

Senate Democrats are are trying to get a unanimous consent agreement for the Senate to debate and vote on the nomination of Gerard Lynch to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.

Lynch's nomination is relatively non-contentious. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination by voice vote on June 11.

There are four appellate court nominations, including Lynch's, and one district court nomination pending on the Senate's executive calendar.

The need for more federal judges was the topic at a news conference Tuesday with Anthony J. Scirica, executive committee chairman of the Judicial Conference.

Scirica, who serves on the 3rd Circuit appeals court, said that since 1990 -- the last time Congress enacted a major judgeship bill -- appellate court caseloads have gone up by 45 percent, and district court caseloads have gone up 27 percent. Scirica said there has been a "huge influx" of immigration appeals to circuit courts, and that "border courts," such as the Southern and Western districts of Texas have seen a big jump in cases.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy has introduced a bill that would create dozens of new appellate and district court judgeships.

The U.S. Postal Service plans to issue a panel of four stamps honoring former Supreme Court justices Joseph Story, Louis D. Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter and William J. Brennan Jr.

The Postal Service and the Supreme Court will commemorate the first day of issue on Sept. 22, with an event at the Supreme Court featuring Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Postmaster General John E. Potter.

President Obama has nominated Virginia Supreme Court Justice Barbara Milano Keenan for a seat on the 4th Circuit appeals court.

"Justice Keenan has a long and distinguished record of service on the bench," Obama said. "She was the first female judge elected in the state of Virginia and the only woman appointed to the Virginia Court of Appeals upon its creation. Her commitment to fairness and judicial integrity has been unwavering throughout her career, and I am honored to nominate her today to serve on the United States Court of Appeals."

There are five vacancies on the 15-member 4th Circuit, which has a reputation for being the most conservative appellate bench in the country. Obama has nominated one other 4th Circuit candidate, Andre M. Davis. The full Senate has not yet taken up Davis' nomination.

Denny Chin, a federal District Court judge in Manhattan, is expected to be nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Chin would be the only Asian American judge on any Circuit Court, which has been the case since A. Wallace "Wally" Tashima, a judge on the Ninth Circuit, took senior status in 2004. As we noted in February, Asian American legal groups have been pressing the Obama administration to change that.

Obama has nominated three Asian Americans to seats on California District Courts: Edward Milton Chen, Dolly Gee and Jacqueline Nguyen.

In an uncharacteristic display of goodwill, two judicial nominees advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday on the first day on which they appeared on the agenda.

The committee approved the nominations of Beverly B. Martin of Georgia to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and Jeffrey L. Viken to be a district judge for the District of South Dakota. Viken is the first of President Obama's District Court nominees to advance out of the Judiciary Committee. As Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the panel's ranking Republican, noted, nominations are almost always held over for a week rather than being approved on the first try.

Martin, a district Judge in Georgia nominated by President Clinton in 2000, was previously an assistant U.S. attorney and the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia. Viken is currently the federal public defender for North Dakota and South Dakota.

In her first oral argument session since joining the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor signaled today that she does not agree that corporations should be allowed a freer hand to spend money to influence elections.

The case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, started as a non-profit corporation's challenge to restrictions in the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign law to "electioneering conmunications" paid for out of corporate or union general treasury funds within 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election. Before Sotomayor joined the court, it broadened the case to consider whether to overturn two major campaign finance precedents.

Sotomayor sat quietly through almost a third of the session, before asking former Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson whether the plaintiff's side was "giving up on your earlier arguments" that the court could rule for the plaintiff without overturning the precedents.

Sotomayor said that a "difficulty" she had was that "we don't have any record developed below" on the question of voiding the precedents.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy dropped a bill today that would create dozens of new appellate and district court judgeships.

"After years of debate and federal courts struggling to adjudicate cases despite the overwhelming burden of heavy caseloads, the time to enact a comprehensive federal judgeship bill is long overdue," Leahy said.

The legislation would establish four new judgeships on the 9th Circuit; two on the 2nd Circuit; and one judgeship each in the 1st, 3rd and 6th Circuit courts. It would create one temporary slot on the 3rd, 8th and 9th Circuit benches. The bill also would establish 38 permanent new district court seats across the country.

CQ's White House reporter, Adriel Bettelheim, who did pool duty today for the press corps covering President Obama, filed this report on Justice Sonia Sotomayor's investiture ceremony at the Supreme Court:

In the courtroom, Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. sat next to each other in two black chairs in the first row, to the right of center as one faces the bench. These chairs are normally used by court officers and retired justices during oral arguments. Recently retired Associate Justice David H. Souter could be seen in the same row.

Your pool reporter's view during the eight-minute ceremony was almost entirely obscured by maroon and gold curtains and large security personnel. Relying on glimpses and an account by the court's public information office, Sotomayor was escorted by the clerk of the court to the well of the courtroom, where she sat in the chair occupied by Chief Justice John Marshall during the early 19th century. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Solicitor General Elena Kagan were seated at counsel's tables in front of the bench. The AG moved to have Sotomayor's commission read by the clerk.

After spending June and July on Sonia Sotomayor's successful nomination to the Supreme Court, the Senate Judiciary Committee will resume processing lower court nominations in earnest this week.

On Wednesday, the committee plans to hold a confirmation hearing for 3rd Circuit nominee Joseph A. Greenaway Jr., of New Jersey; and district court nominees Roberto A. Lange of South Dakota, Irene Cornelia Berger of West Virginia and Charlene Edwards Honeywell of Florida.

The next day, the committee is scheduled to vote on the nominations of Beverly Baldwin Martin of Georgia for the 11th Circuit, and Jeffrey L. Viken to be a South Dakota district judge. The committee held a confirmation hearing for Martin and Viken on July 29, the day after it voted to approve Sotomayor's nomination. Georgia Republicans Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson both testified in favor of Martin's nomination.

Nevertheless, committee Republicans are expected to postpone consideration of the Martin and Viken nominations for a week, as provided for under committee rules.

The Supreme Court will conduct a formal investiture ceremony for Justice Sonia Sotomayor this afternoon in its courtroom.

President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. are scheduled to attend. Sotomayor and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. will walk down the front steps of the Supreme Court building at about 2:15 p.m., and pose briefly for photographs, along with members of Sotomayor's family.

The newest justice has already been on the job for a month, since getting sworn in on Aug. 8 in a private ceremony at the court. She will be on the bench for Wednesday's oral argument in a high-stakes campaign finance case.

The Supreme Court announced Friday that it would rush the release of an audio recording of its unusual Sept. 9 session, in which the court will hear a second round of argument in a high-stakes campaign finance case.

As it has gotten in the habit of doing in major cases, the court will release the recording soon after the session concludes. The case is Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

The justices -- including the court's newest member, Sonia Sotomayor -- are trying to decide whether to overturn of two of its campaign finance precedents, which would loosen restrictions on corporate political spending.

Justice John Paul Stevens has only hired one clerk for the Supreme Court term starting in October 2010, generating new speculation that he might be planning to retire next year.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the 89-year-old justice has hired one clerk for the October 2010 term rather than the full contingent of four.

Since justices give few public indications of their future plans, clerk hiring, which is done well in advance, is one of the only tea leaves to read. Retired justices are only entitled to one clerk.

The CIA told a federal court on Monday that it would not turn over a slew of documents related to the George W. Bush administration's controversial detainee interrogation program.

Last week, the Justice Department released a redacted CIA report from 2004, and hundreds of pages of other records, that had been sought by the American Civil Liberties Union in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation. That material fueled calls by Democrats and liberal activists for a full investigation of the interrogation program. 

But the administration on Monday told New York district judge Alvin K. Hellerstein that it would not hand over other records related to the interrogation program, which critics say amounted to torture.