Sen. Reid Critical of ABA Judicial Nominee Evals
During a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting today, Sen. Harry Reid offered up criticism of the ABA’s process of evaluating nominees for the federal bench, saying whether the individual is qualified shouldn’t depend on prior judicial experience.
Reid’s comments came as he was introducing a nominee from Nevada, Gloria Navarro, the Blog of Legal Times reports.
According to the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary’s ratings chart (PDF), a substantial majority on the committee rated Navarro qualified while a minority rated her not qualified.
Although the standing committee doesn’t comment on individual nominees, Reid, D-Nev., said there was concern that Navarro had never been a judge, the BLT reports.
“The ABA says she hasn’t had judicial experience. That is upsetting to me,” the BLT quotes Reid saying. “I think the ABA should get a new life and look at whether people are qualified, not whether they have judicial experience.”
Navarro, a former public defender, is currently Chief Deputy District Attorney for Clark County handling civil litigation, her White House nominee bio states.
Kim J. Askew, a Dallas-based partner at K&L Gates who chairs the standing committee, declined to comment Thursday on Reid’s remarks.
According to the standing committee’s backgrounder, a 31-page downloadable document (PDF), the 15-member group evaluates nominees on three criteria: integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament.
For judicial temperament, the backgrounder says the committee considers the prospective nominee’s “compassion, decisiveness, open-mindedness, courtesy, patience, freedom from bias, and commitment to equal justice under the law.”
Also, in addition to having practiced law for 12 years, the standing committee prefers to see that a nominee has “substantial courtroom and trial experience as a lawyer or trial judge.”
Related coverage:
Las Vegas Journal-Review: “American Bar Association: Reid criticizes lawyers group, Democratic leader praises judicial nominee’s ‘real world’ qualifications”
