WASHINGTON — Ohio’s two U.S. senators have asked President Barack Obama to send a Cincinnati-based magistrate judge to the federal bench.
U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown and George Voinovich Monday, July 6, recommended Timothy Black for the vacancy in U.S. District Court for the state’s southern district. The decision makes Black, a U.S. magistrate judge for the Southern District of Ohio since 2004, the likely nominee for the vacancy created when Judge Sandra Beckwith decided to move to senior status, a quasi-retirement role.
Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas judge Mary Wiseman was one of the finalists, along with Jeffery Hopkins, a judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Ohio.
“Judge Black is exceptionally well-qualified,” Wiseman said Monday. “I wish Judge Black all the best as he goes forward in the process.”
Before serving as magistrate, Black spent 10 years on the Hamilton County Municipal Court and served as a partner at Graydon, Head and Ritchey in Cincinnati.
The nomination is based on the recommendation of a 17-member commission assembled by Brown, D-Ohio, and Voinovich, R-Ohio.
The southern district serves Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus as well as 48 Ohio counties. Appointments to the federal bench are for life.
http://www.journal-news.com/news/wiseman-passed-over-for-judge-appointment--192521.html
