VIRGINIA SENATORS RECOMMEND KEENAN FOR FOURTH CIRCUIT

[Posted June 2, 2009] Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner have recommended to the President that Justice Barbara M. Keenan be nominated for an opening on the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. If she is nominated and confirmed, she will be the second justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia to cross Capitol Square and enter the federal court system in recent months; Fourth Circuit Judge Steve Agee made the same trip not long ago.

Justice Keenan was one of several illustrious finalists for the recommendation. She has been an appellate jurist for nearly a quarter century, serving on the Court of Appeals of Virginia and then the Supreme Court. She is currently the second most senior justice on the Virginia court, ranking only behind Chief Justice Leroy Hassell.