Bush Taps Four for Federal Appeals Court Posts

WASHINGTON – President Bush on Wednesday sent four nominations to the Senate to fill vacancies on federal appeals courts.

Nominated were Kent Jordan of Delaware for the 3rd U.S. Circuit of Appeals; Debra Ann Livingston of New York for the 2nd Circuit; and Raymond Kethledge and Stephen Joseph Murphy III, both of Michigan, for the 6th Circuit.

Jordan has been a U.S. district judge in Delaware since 2002. Before that, Jordan, who attended Brigham Young University and earned a law degree from Georgetown University, was an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University and Widener University. He also has worked as a corporate attorney, in private practice and as an assistant U.S. attorney in Delaware.

Livingston, who attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School, has been working since 1994 as a professor and vice dean at Columbia Law School. She also was an assistant professor at the University of Michigan and worked in the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York.

Kethledge has been working the past few years as a partner in two private law firms in Troy, Mich. He also worked in the counsel's office of Ford Motor Co. In the 1990s, he was a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and counsel for former Sen. Spencer Abraham. Kethledge holds a law degree from the University of Michigan.

Murphy, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, attended Marquette University and earned a law degree from St. Louis University. He has been public arbitrator for the National Association of Securities Dealers, adjunct professor at Ave Maria School of Law and counsel at General Motors Corp. and has worked in the tax division of the Justice Department.