Last week, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton kicked off the search for the District’s next U.S. attorney. Today, she announced that her nominating commission is accepting applications for three vacancies on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. (You can access the application here.) The deadline for submission is May 15.
Names for the slots abound. D.C. Superior Court Judges James Boasberg, Anita Josey-Herring, and Neal Kravitz are all said to be contenders. Others who have been mentioned include Mary Patrice Brown, who until her recent appointment to head the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility was criminal chief in the U.S. attorney’s office here; Amy Jeffress, the national security chief in the U.S. attorney’s office, currently on detail in the Office of the U.S. Attorney General; Amy Jackson, a partner at Trout Cacheris and former assistant U.S. attorney; and Randall Eliason, another veteran prosecutor who now lectures at American University’s Washington College of Law and at The George Washington University Law School.
In her news release, Norton said criteria for evaluating candidates include "integrity, professional skills and experience, impartiality, industry, good health, high respect in the legal and local community, respect for the Bill of Rights and for the rights of all litigants, entities and parties, judicial temperament, ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing, demonstrated commitment to equal justice, and decisiveness."
Norton added, "Diversity also is important in federal appointments."
Only three of the eleven active judges on the federal district court are women. There is only one Hispanic judge. Former Chief Judge Norma Holloway Johnson, the last black female on the court, retired in 2003.
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