President Barack Obama today nominated U.S. District Judge Patti Saris to chair the U.S. Sentencing Commission and Commissioner Dabney Friedrich to serve a second term.
Since 1994, Saris has sat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She has also been an associate justice on the Massachusetts Superior Court and an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, she would replace Judge William Sessions III. Sessions, who was first confirmed to the commission in 1999, must leave because he has already served two terms. His second term expired Oct. 31.
Friedrich, who was first nominated to sit on the commission by President George W. Bush in 2006, has been an associate White House counsel, counsel to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California and the Eastern District of Virginia.
Her first term also expired Oct. 31.
Comments