Names starting to emerge for early Obama circuit court nominees

This new article in the New York Times, headlined "Obama’s Court Nominees Are Focus of Speculation," starts naming some of the names that President Obama might name for federal circuit court positions. Here are excerpts from the article:

President Obama will soon begin naming a small stream of nominees to the federal appeals courts, administration officials said, a step that will provide the first signs of how much he intends to impose any ideological stamp on the nation’s judiciary.

White House lawyers have compiled lists of likely candidates for vacancies on several of the 12 regional appeals courts, notably those based in Richmond, Va., and New York....

To fill a seat that traditionally goes to someone from Maryland, officials said the White House was considering nominating Andre Davis, a District Court judge based in Baltimore.

There are several candidates for the Virginia seat, including Elizabeth Magill, a law professor at the University of Virginia and daughter of a former federal appeals court judge.

For the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, based in New York, officials said the White House had settled on elevating Judge Gerard E. Lynch, a Columbia law professor, from the District Court....

In a closed meeting on Capitol Hill two weeks ago, Mr. Craig told Democratic senators that the White House would rely on their recommendations to fill the district courts. But he said that while Mr. Obama would welcome their advice, he warned that filling the appeals courts was largely a presidential prerogative, participants said.

Judge Lynch has a terrific sentencing history (including authoring this great piece recently for OSJCL Amici), so sentencing fans should be excited about the prospect of his addition to the Second Circuit.

Some related old and new posts on judicial appointments:

• Noticing the biggest bias in the federal judiciary
• How a new administration is likely to impact federal sentencing practice
• Why federal sentencing reformers must focus on the USSC and lower courts
• Judging, politics, sentencing and elections
• Will the next SCOTUS nominee have any criminal law background?
• Brave New Justice and sentencing issues
• A modest(?) proposal for filling the bench from the ivory tower
• Urging President-elect Obama to elevate district judges to the circuit courts