Friday, February 8, 2013
Page 3
O’Connell Nomination Held Over by Judiciary Committee
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell was among 15 potential federal judicial appointees whose nominations were held over yesterday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Sources said the committee approved three appeals court nominees, while putting over 11 district court, two Court of Appeals, and two Court of International Trade nominees for votes next week.
Approved yesterday were Richard Taranto for the Federal Circuit, Robert Bacharach for the Tenth Circuit, and William Kayatta Jr. for the First Circuit, although Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., asked to be recorded as voting no on Kayatta, the Blog of Legal Times reported.
O’Connell, nominated to be a district judge for the Central District of California, was an assistant U.S. attorney in the district at the time of her appointment to the Superior Court in 2005 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. She had been with that office for 10 years, after having spent five years at the law firm of Morrison & Foerster.
O’Connell received her law degree from Pepperdine University in 1990.
For a five-month stint in 2010 and 2011, she sat, under assignment, as a pro tem on Div. Eight of this district’s Court of Appeal. She became supervising judge of the North Valley District Jan. 1. She has also served on the Superior Court’s Executive Committee.
O’Connell received the highest possible rating, “Well Qualified” from the American Bar Association prior to her confirmation hearing Dec. 12.
Held over yesterday, along with O’Connell were circuit judge nominees Patty Shwartz for the Third Circuit and Caitlin Halligan for the District of Columbia Circuit, district court nominees Pamela Ki Mai Chen, Eastern District of New York; Analisa Torres and Katherine Polk Failla, Southern District of New York; Andrew Patrick Gordon, District of Nevada; Ketanji Brown Jackson, District of Columbia; Raymond P. Moore, District of Colorado; Troy L. Nunley, Eastern District of California; and Derrick Kahala Watson, District of Hawaii; and Mark A. Barnett and Claire R. Kelly, nominated to the U.S. Court of International Trade.
The 15 are among 33 previous nominees whose nominations died when Congress adjourned in January and were promptly renominated by President Obama.
Halligan’s previous nomination was blocked by a Republican filibuster—Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the only Republican to vote for cloture—largely targeting her work as New York solicitor general, including her involvement in a suit against gun manufacturers.
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