Pres. Obama Renominates 2 NorCal Candidates For Fed Judgeships

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- President Obama renominated two candidates for federal judgeships in northern California who were previously nominated last year but never confirmed by the Senate.

William Orrick III, a San Francisco lawyer who has served in the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C., for the past three years, was renominated for a post on the U.S. District Court in San Francisco.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Troy Nunley, who was raised in San Francisco and served as an Alameda County prosecutor, was named again for a seat on the U.S. District Court in Sacramento.

Obama previously nominated Orrick on June 12 and Nunley on June
26. Both won approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee -- Orrick on Aug. 2 and Nunley on Dec. 6 -- but neither nomination was taken up by the full Senate before the 112th Congress ended at noon Thursday.

The two nominees are among 33 candidates for federal trial and appeals courts around the nation who were renominated by Obama for consideration by the Senate of the 113th Congress.

"Today, I am re-nominating 33 highly qualified candidates for the federal bench, including many who could have and should have been confirmed before the Senate adjourned," Obama said in a statement.

"I urge the Senate to consider and confirm these nominees without delay, so all Americans can have equal and timely access to justice," the president said.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., praised the renominations of Orrick and Nunley and said, "I urge my colleagues to move swiftly to confirm these talented nominees."

Boxer recommended Orrick as a nominee last year and California's other Democratic senator, Dianne Feinstein, recommended Nunley.

The two nominees must now go before the Senate Judiciary Committee again.

Orrick, 59, is the son of the late William Orrick II, who served as a federal judge in San Francisco from 1974 until 2003.

The younger Orrick worked for a law firm in San Francisco for 25 years before moving in 2009 to the Justice Department, where he is now a deputy assistant U.S. attorney general in the civil division.

Nunley, 48, who grew up in the Hunters Point district of San Francisco, served as a prosecutor in Alameda and Sacramento counties and in the state attorney general's office before being appointed to Alameda County Superior Court by Gov. Gray Davis in 2002.

Another candidate nominated by Obama in June, former Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jon Tigar, 50, was confirmed by the Senate on Dec. 21 as a federal trial judge in Oakland.

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