Another federal judge slot opens for Obama

[alp227]

Source: SF Chronicle

(10-20) 15:20 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer says he will transfer to senior status with a limited caseload by the end of the year, creating another vacancy on the federal bench in San Francisco.

Breyer, 69, younger brother of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1997. A San Francisco native, he attended Lowell High, Harvard and UC Berkeley law school and was a Legal Aid lawyer and a prosecutor in San Francisco.

As a judge, he presided over the trial of prominent marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal, barred him from using California's medical marijuana law in his defense and then sentenced him to a day in jail after his conviction in 2003. Another ruling in 2007 blocked the Bush administration from enforcing its requirement that employers fire workers whose identification documents did not match Social Security records.

During a break from a criminal trial he was conducting Thursday, Breyer said he's taking senior status to get a more flexible schedule with time for other duties, such as his work as long-range planning coordinator for the entire federal judiciary.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/20/BA4M1LK9KH.DTL

[kestrel91316]

1. Doesn't he have about 30 federal judge slots to fill that he has failed to

even nominate someone for??

[MH1]

3. There's quite a few that he's nominated and the republicans refuse to vote on

I don't know about any he hasn't nominated, but if he can't get votes on the ones he already has nominated, then maybe it's not the most pressing thing on his agenda.

[1StrongBlackMan]

4. So true ...

I have a law school friend who has been waiting 2 1/2seat years to even sit for a hearing ... and she has all the credentials and history AND she is wayyyy to the right of me.

[demosincebirth]

2. With the repubs, it would worse than root canals.