The President made an interesting nomination and withdrawal of a judicial nominee yesterday. (It is important to note that this withdrawal unlike the earlier four was done by the President.) President Bush withdrew Judge Norman Randy Smith's nomination to replace Judge Stephen Trott's previously held position on the Ninth Circuit and instead nominated him to replace Judge Thomas Nelson's position previously held on the same circuit.

Perhaps, the best explanation may come from former RNLA Member and Committee for Justice Executive Director Curt Levey: "The road to confirmation of Norman Randy Smith to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit should now be clear. California’s senators have held up Smith's nomination because he is from Idaho, while they believe the seat for which he was nominated – previously held by Senior Judge Stephen Trott – 'belongs' to the Golden State. But Sens. Feinstein and Boxer no longer have any reason or excuse to block the nomination. This afternoon, the White House announced that it has withdrawn Smith’s nomination to the Trott seat and is nominating him, instead, to the 9th Circuit seat freed up when William Myers asked last week to not be renominated. To the extent that one buys into the seats-belong-to-states theory, the freed up seat – previously held by Senior Judge Thomas Nelson – is indisputably an Idaho seat. Let's just hope Sens. Feinstein and Boxer and their Democrat colleagues don't dream up a new reason to oppose Randy Smith."

# posted by Curt Despain @ 4:50 PM