Reagan Selects Local Attorney for Judgeship

San Diego attorney John S. Rhoades was recommended for a federal judgeship Wednesday by President Reagan, who forwarded Rhoades’ name to a Senate committee for confirmation.

Rhoades, 60, was nominated in May by Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) to fill a vacancy created after U.S. District Judge Leland C. Nielsen, who sits on the Southern District of California bench, took senior status. Nielsen will remain on the bench but will hear only criminal cases and will handle a reduced caseload.

A U.S. District Court judge is appointed for life and currently earns $76,000 per year.

A jubilant Rhoades said Reagan notified him in a mid-morning telephone call that he was submitting Rhoades’ name to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee’s confirmation is considered pro fo r ma because the President has already accepted his nomination. Rhoades is expected to appear before the committee later this year before his name is submitted to the Senate for final confirmation.

“I was very pleased to hear from the President,” Rhoades said. “He joked that he had a document that he wanted to sign nominating me to be U.S. district judge and wanted to know if I would give my approval. I said, ‘Of course, Mr. President.’

“I’m looking forward to serving on the federal bench because I think I can contribute to our criminal justice system.”

Rhoades received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University in 1948 and his law degree from Hastings, the University of California law school at San Francisco, in 1951. He was given the highest rating--exceptionally well-qualified--by a local bar committee that screened several applicants whose names were placed in consideration by Wilson as being nominees.

Attorneys interviewed on Wednesday called Rhoades a “humanitarian” and “a respected legal scholar.”

Although Rhoades has established his mark in legal circles as a skilled civil lawyer, Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller said he is “a well-rounded legal scholar with a thorough knowledge of all aspects of the law.”

“John has all the traits necessary to make him an outstanding federal judge,” said Miller, a former law partner of Rhoades. “He’s a very common-sense type of person with an even temperament. He is probably conservative in most of his political views but very sensitive to individual rights. That combination is going to result in an outstanding performance on the bench.”

Paul Peterson, a local lawyer who has known Rhoades for 27 years, called him “a real humanitarian with a wonderful judicial temperament.”

“I couldn’t think of a better choice for the federal bench. John is known as a lawyer’s lawyer and a specialist in civil trial matters. He is well-read in areas inside and outside of the law. The man is a true legal scholar,” Peterson said.

He added that Rhoades’ biggest strength may be his temperament.

“He has an ability to listen and an ability to reach a prompt decision. He is a humanitarian but also believes in the enforcement of the law. These are rare qualities that will make him an outstanding federal judge,” Peterson said.

Friends said that Rhoades, who is married and has five sons, has varied interests outside of his law practice. According to friends, Rhoades enjoys astronomy, English literature and is an avid swimmer and bicyclist. Friends also say that Rhoades is a good bridge player.

Rhoades, a senior partner in the San Diego firm of Rhoades, Hollywood & Neil, is a longtime friend and legal adviser to Wilson. He worked on Wilson’s 1982 campaign writing position papers and speeches. Rhoades was Wilson’s attorney when the senator divorced his first wife, Betty, in 1983, and in 1982 when Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, questioned a tax write-off taken by Wilson involving a failed methane gas project.