Senate vote is final hurdle.
American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: Sri Srinivasan, the principal deputy solicitor general, is only a step away from being a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, considered the most powerful court in the nation after the Supreme Court, after being approved unanimously by the Senate Judiciary Committee by an 18-0 vote.
Srinivasan’s nomination will now be voted next in the Senate, the final step in the process, which is likely to see him being the first new judge on the panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, since 2006.
The court has four Republican and three Democratic appointees and four vacancies, and filling slots on the bench has proven difficult for Obama. During his first term, the court blocked rules to curb interstate air pollution and enhance cigarette labeling while delaying decisions on workers’ rights, reported The Washington Post.
Srinivasan is a Stanford University graduate who worked in President George W. Bush’s solicitor general’s office for five years before returning there under Obama in 2011. As Thursday’s vote proved, he enjoys bipartisan support and the support of 12 former solicitors general and principal deputy solicitors general — six Democrats and six Republicans — who recently co-signed a letter backing his nomination, reported the Post.
Read the full report in The Washington Post.
Earlier this year, Republicans rejected the nomination of Caitlin Halligan to fill a vacancy on the D.C. Circuit. President Barack Obama has yet to successfully place a judge on the court, often considered the second most important court in the country below the Supreme Court, reported the Legal Times.
Read the full story at the Legal Times.
In other action, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved with a voice vote the nomination of Raymond Chen to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. If confirmed, Chen, the deputy general counsel for intellectual property law and solicitor for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since 2008, would be the first Asian American to serve on the Federal Circuit in more than 25 years, reported the Legal Times.
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