ConfirmThem

The other day, I sent around a list of potential Obama COA nominees for the remaining 17 current and upcoming COA vacancies. I've re-posted it here, with a few additions: Jacqueline H. Nguyen (pending Obama district court nominee in CA) and Ketanji Brown Jackson (DC lawyer). Other than that, the list is as submitted -- as always, I'm interested in anyone's thoughts on any of these names, which are listed by circuit/state with former judge in parentheses:

--1st Circuit/RI (Selya): RI's senators have already said they're recommending a state judge, Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson. It's hard to see the White House going against those two senators.

--2nd Circuit/NY (Sotomayor), 2nd Circuit/NY (Sack), 2nd Circuit/NY (Parker): It makes sense to put all three of these vacancies together, since they're all seats from the state of NY. Some possibilities: lawyer Teresa Wynn Roseborough; U.S. District judges Denny Chin, Laura Taylor Swain, George Daniels, or John Gleeson; former NY Solicitor General Caitlin Halligan; Columbia Law Professor Gillian Metzger; New York University Law Dean Richard Revesz; NYC lawyer (and former Breyer clerk) Anne K. Small; Hofstra Law Dean Nora Demleitner. Obviously, NYC is full of tons of lawyers (and big Obama donors) who would love these seats.

--2nd Circuit/CT (Calabresi): U.S. District judges Robert Chatigny, Christopher Droney, Alvin Thompson or Stefan Underhill.

--4th Circuit/SC (Williams) and 4th Circuit/SC (Wilkins): no obvious candidates from SC; one of these seats probably will be transferred to NC anyhow.

--4th Circuit/VA (Widener): VA Supreme Court Justice Barbara Milano Keenan already has been recommended by VA's senators; as was the case with Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson on the 1st Circuit, it's just a matter of time before the White House endorses this pick.

--4th Circuit/NC (Phillips): U.S. District Judges (and failed Clinton nominee) James Wynn or James Beaty; U.S. bankruptcy Judge (and failed Clinton nominee) J. Rich Leonard; NC Court of Appeals Judge Martha Geer; NC Supreme Court Justice Pat Timmons-Goodson; NC attorney Douglas Kingsbery.

--5th Circuit/MS (Barksdale): former MS Attorney General Mike Moore; former state Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz.

--7th Circuit/WI (Evans): no obvious candidates.

--9th Circuit/AZ (Michael Daly Hawkins): U.S. District Judges Raner Collins, Mary Murguia or Susan Bolton (most likely Murguia).

--9th Circuit/ID (Trott) and 9th Circuit/CA (new position): the Trott seat probably will revert to CA, so I'll group these two seats together: U.S. District Judges Virginia Phillips or Phyllis Hamilton; former U.S. District Judge Martin Jenkins (now on the CA Court of Appeal); former Clinton COA nominee Barry Goode; law professors Pam Karlan, Kathleen Sullivan, Jennifer Chacon, or Jennifer Martinez; SF lawyer (and former Breyer clerk) Aimee Feinberg; US District Court nominee Jacqueline Nguyen.

--10th Circuit/UT (McConnell): former US attorney and gubernatorial candidate (and son of a former governor) Scott Matheson, Jr., as noted in my previous comment; or alternately (but not likely, given his age) U.S. District Judge Ted Stewart.

--DC Circuit's two vacancies (Randolph and Roberts): these are truly anyone's guess. Unlike the Second Circuit vacancies, the *entire United States* is full of tons of lawyers who would give much for these seats. Any shortlist would contain the following names, though: Beth Brinkmann, Teresa Wynn Roseborough, Elena Kagan, Neal Katyal, Cass Sunstein, Richard Roberts, Virginia Seitz, Kathleen Sullivan, Pam Karlan, Tom Perrelli, Casey Cooper, Donald Verrilli, Ian Gershengorn, Harold Koh, Anne Harkavy, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Preeta Bansal.

Does anyone have any suggested additions to this list?