A Little Non-Roberts Nomination Gossip

Earlier this week, Article III Groupie passed along the rumor that Gregory Van Tatenhove, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, would be nominated to the district bench. Sure enough, the rumor is now reality.*

A3G would like to reiterate her prior requests for delicious gossip about judicial nominations. Her readers are dying to learn more about possible new federal judges from around the country. Consider this message:

I noticed that you're focusing on future vacancies in the Tenth and Third Circuits, but you should also note that there are many more actual vacancies in the federal judiciary. Many of these vacancies have no nominees. Note in particular that there are four vacancies in the very overworked Ninth Circuit, and only one has a nominee: William Myers, who was one of the two filibustered nominees left in the filibuster as a part of the "gang of 14" agreement, and thus is unlikely to be confirmed. I find it hard to imagine that Bush isn't in the preliminary stages of finding nominees for the remaining three slots. Might be worth putting out a discovery request to see what names are being batted about...

If you have any such information, concerning possible nominees to any Article III court, please email A3G forthwith.

It goes without saying that A3G welcomes gossip about possible nominees to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. UTR sources identify two contenders as ones to watch: (1) Judge Prisicilla Owen (5th Cir.), a.k.a. The Lone Star Diva, who recently had a secret sit-down with President Bush (as reported by Robert Novak, of L'affaire Plame fame, who correctly predicted the SOC retirement); and (2) Miguel Estrada, a.k.a. The Kid from Tegucigalpa, who is like "a Latino Roberts -- brilliant, conservative, but hard to nail down without the SG documents (which the Roberts nomination precedent has now established as out-of-bounds)."

Article 3 Groupie has blogged about Judge Owen extensively in the past (here and here). A3G is collecting information for a more detailed post about Miguel Estrada, so she'll have more to say about him in the not-too-distant future. She welcomes contributions from her readers, for which she is always grateful (despite her unfortunate inability to respond to most email that she receives, due to the volume of submissions).

* Some might note that A3G posted about Mr. Van Tatenhove's possible nomination only hours before it was publicly announced, perhaps making it less of a scoop. In her defense, however, she would point out that she received this gossip sometime last week -- it just took her a little while to publish.

Comments

[jp]

I would be interested in your thoughts on this post, which I believe I left as a comment on your site several posts ago:

http://americansforfreedom.blogspot.com/2005/09/speculation-on-next-scotus-pick-is.html

I think the President will nominate Miguel Estrada.

He is young, 43, which is one of the most important factors
His resume is impeccable. Nominated to the DC Circuit by President Bush in 2001 and was fillibustered until he withdrew in 2003 before the Senate agreement of 14 approved most of the previously filibusterees. Estrada was filibustered for the precise reason that the White House had not provided access to documents prepared when he was assistant solicitor general. My interest comes in this point. Estrada and Roberts have almost identical resumes, experience and the most important thing, duplicate experience in the Solicitor General's office. If solicitor's general office documents are not released and democrats vote for Roberts, how can they vote against confirming Estrada?
My interest comes in this point. Estrada and Roberts have almost identical resumes, experience and the most important thing, duplicate experience in the Solicitor General's office. If documents are not released and democrats vote for Roberts, how can they vote against confirming Estrada?

Go Mr. President, nominate Miguel Estrada, a young, strong conservative hispanic, and watch the left literally, spontaneously combust.