PRESIDENT NOMINATES JUSTICE KEENAN FOR FOURTH CIRCUIT

[Posted September 14, 2009] According to the White House’s web site, President Obama today nominated Supreme Court of Virginia Justice Barbara M. Keenan for a vacant seat on the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. This move isn’t exactly a surprise, as Justice Keenan was jointly recommended by Senators Webb and Warner.

The Senate will consider the nominations in hearings to be conducted at a time to be determined. The ABA gave her a rating of “well qualified” for the post. If she is confirmed, the move would be the second shift across Capital Square in the last year and a half; Justice Steve Agee made the same move in 2008, becoming Judge Agee in the process. And the vacancy that such a move would create would lead to another milestone, as the next justice of the SCV will be the 100th in the court’s long history.