As federal lawmakers continued to duke it out over budget matters, a nominee for the District of Columbia Superior Court breezed through his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill this week.
Superior Court Presiding Magistrate Judge William Nooter appeared October 8 before the Senate committee that handles nominations to the city's local courts. In a likely nod to Nooter's non-controversial nomination, Chairman Mark Begich (D-Alaska) said the magistrate judge was in store for the "fastest hearing in Washington, D.C."
Nooter, a Superior Court magistrate judge since 2000, was nominated in July. Before joining the court, he handled civil matters in private practice at Washington's Jordan Coyne & Savits and served as a trial attorney in the District of Columbia's Office of Corporation Counsel, now known as the Office of the Attorney General.
Begich, noting Nooter's background litigating and serving as a magistrate in Superior Court, said he was "clearly highly qualified" for the job.
Nooter said he was especially looking forward to presiding over jury trials, which magistrate judges don't do. Being a judge, he said, was "the role in the legal system I want to continue to be in for the rest of my career."
Once Nooter is formally approved by the committee, he will go before the full Senate for a vote. The District of Columbia's judges, unlike any other local court system in the country, are nominated by the White House and approved by the Senate.
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