Senate Judiciary Moves Two Judicial Nominees

By Seth Stern | September 10, 2009 11:09 AM | | Comments (0)

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.

The two judicial nominations were approved by voice vote along with a group of four U.S. attorney nominees. One of those nominees -- Daniel G. Bogden of Nevada -- would be returning to a job he's already held. Bogden was among nine U.S. attorneys whose dismissals eventually prompted the resignation of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.

Another of the U.S. attorney nominees, Neil H. MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia, is a former Senate Judiciary Committee staffer who worked for Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., now the vice president.

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