On Friday, June 19, President Obama nominated Judge Beverly Baldwin Martin to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, a circuit consisting of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. This is Obama's first nomination to the 11th Circuit and his second to a court directly involving Georgia (the other being Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court), his fifth judicial nomination overall (He now has eight.), and his fourth nomination at the Circuit level (He has five.). As the partisan composition of the Eleventh Circuit is currently 7-4 in favor of the Republicans, Martin would not be able to tip the balance. In fact, she would be bringing it back to the previous 7-5 composition as she would be replacing R. Lanier Anderson III, a Carter appointee.
Besides the vacancy on the Eleventh Circuit, there are four other vacancies in Georgia at the district level: one for the Middle District and three for the Northern District. If Martin is confirmed to the Eleventh Circuit, this would create another vacancy for the Northern District.
Martin has an impressive resume. The American Bar Association seems to agree, giving Martin a "well qualified" rating. She has served in her capacity as a judge for the Northern District of Georgia since August 3, 2000. Before that, she served as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia for three years before being named U.S. Attorney for said district, a position she served in for three years before her current gig. She also served as Assistant Attorney General for the State of Georgia for ten years. To top all of that off, she had thirteen years of private law experience before all of her public service. In both her judgeship and U.S. Attorney position, she was approved by a Republican-controlled Senate.
My concern with Martin is not on her qualifications (unlike, say, Harriet Miers). My concern is with some of the rulings she has issued. For example, she ruled against SCANA customers who had argued they were not adequately notified of a rate difference, saying that simply posting this information on their website is good enough. In another case, she ruled a Marietta sign ordinance unconstitutional violation of the of the First Amendment. She has rejected claims by environmental groups claiming the state and federal regulators were violating the Clean Air Act. Someone reading that final link may also note the mention of her upholding Georgia's method of lethal injection. This is actually not that big of a deal for me; I support the death penalty, although there are issues with its arbitrariness.
I'm not saying I would automatically vote against her nomination if I were a senator. For all I know, the facts in these cases may have been so clear that she had to rule the way she did. Plus, for all I know, Martin may have been the most reasonable judge to fill the position on the Eleventh Circuit. I would, however, like some reassurance that she isn't a toady for government and cooperate power and that she will use every ambiguity of the law to protect the interests of the consumer, worker, and average citizen against undue cooperate and governmental action while at the same time protecting the ability of collectives of citizens to act through their governments against unwanted and destructive corporate practices.
What do you think?