State Supreme Court Justice Nominated to Appellate Post

President Bush late Friday nominated California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Her nomination to one of three vacancies on the D.C. Circuit, considered a steppingstone to the U.S. Supreme Court, is expected to draw fire from U.S. Senate Democrats. It also would create the first vacancy on the state Supreme Court in two years.

“I am honored to be considered for appointment to the D.C. Circuit. If I have the opportunity to serve, it would be a privilege to join such a distinguished court,” Brown said in a statement. She was out of state and unavailable for comment.

Like Bush’s nomination of lawyer Miguel Estrada to the court, Brown’s nomination is expected to encounter opposition from Senate Democrats. But supporters say she could prove difficult to defeat.

The 54-year-old daughter of an Alabama sharecropper worked her way through Cal State Sacramento and UCLA School of Law to become the first African American woman on California’s highest court.

She served as legal affairs secretary to former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, who appointed her to the state appellate court in Sacramento in 1994 and the Supreme Court two years later.

Her nomination to the state high court was controversial because the State Bar of California panel that evaluates the governor’s judicial nominees found that she lacked experience to sit on the high court.

As her nomination winds through the Senate, the focus in California will be on her possible replacement. Gov. Gray Davis named Carlos Moreno, a former federal judge in Los Angeles, to fill the last vacancy on the California Supreme Court in 2001.

Court observers say Davis could return to the short list of candidates that he passed over in favor of Moreno. They included Justice Dennis Cornell of the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Dennis Perluss and Justice Steven Z. Perren of the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Ventura.