WASHINGTON – President Obama’s first appellate court nominee has been criticized by a conservative group as a judge who “made rulings that show his willingness to bend the law to reach outcomes favored by his ACLU allies.”
But Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that Hoosier David Hamilton is “the type of lawyer and the type of person one wants to see on the federal bench.”
Lugar and Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., heaped praise on Hamilton, who was Bayh’s chief legal counsel when Bayh was Indiana’s governor and who is the son of Lugar’s Indianapolis pastor.
Bayh said Hamilton “helped me to craft bipartisan solutions to some of the most pressing problems facing our state. In particular, he helped to favorably resolve several major lawsuits that threatened our state budget and drafted a tough new ethics policy to ensure that our state government was operating openly and honestly.”
If confirmed by the Senate, Hamilton would join the Chicago-based court that hears cases appealed from federal courts in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. If rulings from appeals court are appealed, they are considered by the Supreme Court.
Obama said Hamilton, a federal judge in Indianapolis for 14 years, “has a long and impressive record of service and a history of handing down fair and judicious decisions” and called him a “thoughtful and distinguished addition to the 7th Circuit.”
