Law Clerk Addict

Virginia Senators Jim Webb (D-VA) and Mark Warner (D-VA) have recommended that President Barack Obama nominate Virginia Supreme Court Justice Barbara Milano Keenan to a vacant Virginia seat on the Fourth Circuit. Those who followed the judicial nomination battles during the George W. Bush presidency may remember that all three of President Bush's nominees to this particular seat on the Fourth Circuit--Defense Department General Counsel William Haynes II, McGuireWoods partner E. Duncan Getchell, and district judge Glen Conrad (W.D. Va.)--were filibustered or otherwise obstructed since the seat became open in 2001.

As usual, the final decision of who to nominate rests solely with President Obama, so those wishing to send clerkship applications to Justice Keenan this summer in hopes of her being on the Fourth Circuit by fall 2010 should do so at their own risk. This advice is particularly apt for this seat, given its long history of obstruction and that the primary reason Getchell's nomination failed was due to President Bush's refusal to select a nominee approved by both Senator Webb and former Senator John Warner (R-VA).