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  1. #1
    Senior Member cvangel's Avatar
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    Feinstein taps "bipartisan" panels to pick judges

    Feinstein taps bipartisan panels to pick judges
    Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

    Sunday, January 4, 2009




    (01-04) 16:14 PST -- With Democrats about to take control of appointments to federal courts and prosecutors' offices, Sen. Dianne Feinstein has named bipartisan committees to screen candidates in California, with Louise Renne, a former San Francisco city attorney, heading the Bay Area panel.


    Feinstein and fellow Democrat Barbara Boxer say they will take turns recommending nominees to Barack Obama for U.S. District Court, U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal's positions in California after the president-elect takes office Jan. 20.

    Although the president nominates the candidates for those jobs and the Senate votes on their confirmation, their selection is traditionally left up to senators from the president's party.

    In California and other states with two Democratic senators, President Bush has relied on bipartisan screening committees, an innovative arrangement that has produced some compromise candidates.

    Gerald Parsky, Bush's former California campaign manager, chairs the statewide committee and gives final approval to each candidate, but Feinstein and Boxer are represented on the panel.

    Feinstein endorsed a similar approach for the next four years, saying she believes "a bipartisan, merit-based process is the best way to go."

    She named committees last week to advise her on whom to recommend for vacant judgeships and other positions around the state. Boxer has not yet named similar committees, saying only that the panels will see to it that her recommendations "will be highly qualified and worthy of the enormous trust that Californians will place in them."

    Four federal judgeships in California are vacant - two in Los Angeles, one in Sacramento and one in the Bay Area, where Oakland U.S. District Judge Martin Jenkins resigned in April and was appointed to a state appeals court by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Other vacancies will soon arise if several veteran judges transfer to senior status, with a reduced caseload.

    The state's four U.S. attorney positions will become available if the new administration replaces all federal prosecutors, the usual practice when a president from a different party takes office. Joseph Russoniello, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco since January 2008, has said he will stay on until he is replaced and has expressed interest in keeping his job.

    Feinstein announced her four regional panels last week, supervised by San Diego attorney David Casey, whom she described as a longtime adviser. Renne, a San Francisco lawyer who served as city attorney from 1986 to 2001, will chair the committee that screens candidates for coastal Northern California, a district that stretches from Monterey County to the Oregon border.

    Other members of the Bay Area panel are Democrats Angela Bradstreet, Schwarzenegger's state labor commissioner, and Raymond Marshall, a San Francisco attorney and former State Bar president; and Republicans Robert Feldman, a Redwood City lawyer, and Fern Smith, a retired federal judge.


    E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 152UDJ.DTL

  2. #2
    MW
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    Senior Member MW's Avatar
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    Feinstein and fellow Democrat Barbara Boxer say they will take turns recommending nominees to Barack Obama for U.S. District Court, U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal's positions in California after the president-elect takes office Jan. 20.
    Lord helps us.

    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**

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    Senior Member MadInChicago's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MW
    Feinstein and fellow Democrat Barbara Boxer say they will take turns recommending nominees to Barack Obama for U.S. District Court, U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal's positions in California after the president-elect takes office Jan. 20.
    Lord helps us.



    MW, You are right, There is No other way to say it - "Lord Help Us!"
    <div>&ldquo;There is no longer any Left or Right, there is only Tyranny or Liberty &rdquo;</div>

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