Huff Nominated to Fill Vacancy on Federal Court

Marilyn Huff, a lawyer in San Diego’s largest law firm, was formally nominated Thursday by President Bush to one of the three vacant slots on San Diego’s federal bench, the court announced.

Bush revealed the nomination in a personal call Thursday to Huff, 40, a press law expert at Gray, Cary, Ames & Frye. It had been rumored she would be nominated.

Chief U.S. District Judge Judith N. Keep confirmed the call. Keep said Thursday that the five full-time judges working at the desperately shorthanded court hope Huff will sail through confirmation hearings before the U.S. Senate.

Bush set no timetable for the confirmation hearings, according to an internal law firm memo announcing the President’s call. If confirmed, Huff would be the first new judge to join the San Diego federal bench since 1985, when Judge John S. Rhoades took office. Huff is to replace U.S. District Judge William B. Enright, who took senior, or part-time, status upon reaching age 65 last year.

In a recent interview, Huff declined to discuss her views on particular issues such as abortion or the sentencing guidelines, the rigid new federal court rules that radically curtail the discretion of federal judges in imposing sentences in criminal cases.

It’s partly because of the guidelines that the San Diego court finds itself short of judges. Last fall, with the Enright vacancy awaiting a nomination, U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving announced that he was quitting because of frustration with the guidelines.

That opened a second spot. Veteran San Diego lawyer James A. McIntyre reportedly has been recommended to fill that vacancy. He could not be reached Thursday for comment.

Meanwhile, Congress created a brand-new, third, opening. Keep said Thursday there is no word on prospects for filling that slot.

Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.) is charged with recommending candidates to Bush, who makes the formal nomination. The nominee then appears before the Senate.

Federal judges are appointed for life and handle both civil and criminal cases, everything from weighty civil rights cases and big business disputes to money-laundering and marijuana busts.

The San Diego court is unique among the other federal courts in California--which are based in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento--because its judges see about 85% criminal cases. That is largely because the San Diego court handles thousands of cases that arise from drug and alien smuggling arrests along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Huff grew up in Dearborn, Mich., near Detroit. She went to Calvin College, near Grand Rapids, graduating in 1972.

She taught third grade in Jenison, Mich., near Grand Rapids, for a year. After that, she went to law school, graduating from the University of Michigan in 1976.

Huff has spent her entire legal career at the Gray, Cary, Ames & Frye firm. She made partner in 1983.

Among her clients is the Copley Press, which publishes the San Diego Union and Tribune. Over the years, she frequently has made appearances in some of the county’s high-profile cases, asking that court hearings or documents remain open to the press.

Among the criminal cases in which she has pleaded for media access were those against accused killers Sagon Penn, Craig Peyer, Laura Troiani and Roberta Pearce. She also made the case for the press in the political corruption case against former San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock and alleged money launderer Richard T. Silberman.

Huff and her husband, William Boggs, live in San Diego with their two sons.