Nominees Diaz and Wynn continue to wait

Kirsten E. Small

I was excited to see a hopeful line of text pop up in my Google Alert this morning: "[Senator] Kay Hagan says North Carolina judges Albert Diaz and James Wynn are on the next tier of judicial nominees who could come up for a full vote in the Senate." Unfortunately, the article as a whole is not so hopeful; you can read it here (scroll down to the bottom).

The essence of the piece is that Diaz and Wynn are still stuck in a "political logjam," with no estimated date of escape.

One could argue that, for the moment at least, there is no particular urgency to confirming Diaz and Wynn. The Fourth Circuit has completed its last sitting for the current term and will not again convene in Richmond until September. On the other hand, I imagine that Judges Wynn and Diaz would far prefer to get settled in their Fourth Circuit digs while activity at the court is relatively light, rather than during the rush of new business that precedes the September sitting.

Filling in the Fourth Circuit: Diaz and Wynn nominations proceed to full Senate.

by Kirsten Small

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send the nominations of Albert Diaz and James A. Wynn, Jr., both of North Carolina, to the Senate for a floor vote. Diaz, a former Marine with degrees from the Wharton School (B.A. Economics), NYU (J.D.), and Boston University (MBA), currently serves as one of three judges on the state's business court, a position to which he was appoined by the North Carolina Supreme Court.

Wynn is a decorated Naval officer who, like Diaz, holds three degrees: a B.A. in Journalism from UNC Chapel Hill, a J.D. from Marquette University, and an LLM in Judicial Process from UVA. Wynn has been a member of the North Carolina Court of Appeals since 1990. For Wynn, the third time may be the charm: he was nominated to the Fourth Circuit by President Clinton in 1999 and 2001. The 1999 nomination was blocked by Senator Jesse Helms, and the 2001 nomination was returned by President George W. Bush after he took office.

Wynn and Diaz join Barbara Keenan, a member of the Supreme Court of Virginia whose nomination to the Fourth Circuit was approved on October 29, 2009.

Assuming Wynn, Diaz, and Keenan are all confirmed by the full Senate, Obama nominees will hold four of the fifteen seats on the Fourth Circuit (the other Obama nominee is former U.S. District Court Judge Andre M. Davis, who was confirmed on November 9, 2009). And, the Court will be "short" only one judge, a situation that has not occurred since 1994, when the Court had 13 judges for its 15 available seats.

At this time, the nominations of judges Wynn, Diaz, and Keenan have not been scheduled for a vote on confirmation.