Monday, December 28, 2009

Sidebar: Navarro's Nomination

Let's keep this one simple.

If we, the WWL readers, were confirming Navarro, would you vote for her or against her?

If you are voting against her, please tell us why and tell us who your alternate nominee would be. (Politics, gender, etc. do not matter in the world of Sidebars today.)

38 comments:

  1. oh gee... there are so many other much more incompetent people that Harry and "O" could have picked.

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  2. Knowing what I know, there's know way that I could vote for Navarro. She's got no real substantive qualification to sit on the Federal bench. That said, how the hell can any U.S. Senator know whether she is qualified? The process will go something like this:

    Hispanic? Check.
    Female? Check.
    Admitted to the Bar? Check.
    No criminal history or Bar complaints? Check.
    Admitted for more than a couple of years? Check.
    Anyone important say anything really bad? Nope.

    Okay guys, looks good to me. Now let's go shakedown a multibillion dollar corporation.

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  3. By the way, Tom Beatty.

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  4. Niels Pearson? Didn't Bob Vannah rename him "Crusader Rabbit?" This is the guy that fomented that "medical mafia" federal fiasco, that fell apart with the lack of evidence. You must be some dimwitted defense lawyer, with a bad sense of humor. Are you really serious?

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  5. Ya' know, the US of A is quickly becoming a third-rate, third-world country, so it just makes sense to have Navarro. The only better choice I could think of is a tree-huggin smurf straight from Pandora.

    I am thinking of starting an emigration law practice, to help those who want to escape the madness.

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  6. Don Campbell
    Gary Logan

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  7. Niels L. Pearson is a far better and smarter lawyer than Vannah. Oh, and Pearson understands the ethics rules.

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  8. I find it very telling that we have yet to see a current NSC Justice on anyone's list. Here's mine:

    David Wall
    Doug Herndon
    Stu Bell
    Steve Parsons
    Elissa Cadish

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  9. So, for all those fans of appointing judges instead of electing them, does the Navarro nomination make you feel more secure in your convictions? Yes? No? Explain.

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  10. Navarro is horrible!

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  11. 7:12,

    There is no way of knowing if an elected candidate would be any better. The posters on this thread are probably all lawyers, but the voting population would not be.

    Which group do you think is better, the federal judges in the District of Nevada or the Clark County district judges?

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  12. I think it is interesting that we have this North-South split regarding appointments of judges to the federal bench. If LV attorneys really want to practice in front of their peers and judges that likely have debts, markers, or favors owed in the community, then go ahead. I'll be sending Harry my request for a split in the District to North and South.

    now, you want some real impressive potential federal bench names....gotta get out of the NV bar. Not many impressive jurists on the bench in NV.

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  13. It's not like our federal district court bench is filled with scholars. Jones is a complete joke. Dawson and Hunt are barely competent. White male Republicans can also be incompetent and unqualified.

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  14. It's an obvious call because of her skill and history on the bench:

    Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen.

    I guess she didn't offer Senator Reid the political punch of nominating a latina during a tight election race, but I think most attorneys who have appeared before Judge Leen would say she's more than qualified and has done a great job on the bench as a Magistrate Judge.

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  15. Peggy Leen or Betsy Gonzalez

    Steve Parsons is smart, but nothing would ever get decided. He'd drive the litigants before him nuts.

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  16. I practice in federal court all the time and agree that there are some on that bench that aren't qualified. That being said,I wholehartedly agree with the comment about Leen. She's irritatingly brilliant but as someone pointed out, not Latina. Go figure. Johnston is also an excellent legal scholar and great at ADR. Pro is also excellent and great at his job. As for Navarro? Her nomination makes my flag fly at half mast - it'll probably stay that way for awhile!

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  17. Don't know much about Navarro, but as someone who appears often in front of Cadish, I think she would have been an excellent pick. Very intelligent, a woman, and she's jewish - a quasi-minority.

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  18. All the nonsense notwithstanding I still strongly support an appointed bench. I'm disappointed that Cadish wasn't chosen. Dominic Gentile would be an excellent judge, because of his extensive trial experience, but I'd rather see him in stat court where his criminal experience would be more relevant. Polsenberg's appellate experience would make him a superb federal judge. Of course both Gentile and Polsenberg would have to win a bet on double zero for seven or eight figures to make it worth their while. Which is why I think judges, especially federal judges need to be paid far, far more than they are.

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  19. Well said Pimp, I don't understand what would entice top earning partners to leave their practice for the bench.

    Even the job security federal judges enjoy would not entice rainmakers like Gentile and Polsenberg. These guys make several times the yearly salary of a federal judge.

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  20. Gentile, Polsenberg and Stew Bell are all too old for federal court appointments. I think Leen is a Republican.

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  21. Let's get a little serious here before we start passing the cup for federal judges. They make $170,000 per year, get two law clerks (Chief gets three), and have a much much smaller docket than the state courts.

    True, this makes it harder for big partners to leave private practice, but that's the benefit of having fat pockets - it doesn't matter.

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  22. $170,000 is chump change to those guys. I bet their salaries are in 7figures and have been so for a long time.

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  23. Yah since when is a buck 70 and lifetime appointment something to sneeze at? I don't know if Polsenberg is too old but he's a pompous ass- does that matter?

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  24. I'm just glad to see that the general consesus regarding Navarro is in line with my opinion after litigating against her. She is not smart at all. I'm glad she is in Federal Court where I will rarely have to encounter her.

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  25. Navarro will also be interesting to see how she deals with civil matters. That's the problem with the criminal attorneys (DA's, PD's) who take the bench. Y'all don't know anything about civil procedure, although you do know the rules of evidence much better. In the long run, you can learn the civil rules so it's not that big of a deal.

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  26. I think she is currently working in the civil division.

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  27. Oh, c'mon. Gloria Navarro. I noticed they left out the bulk of her experience that of a Clark County P.D.. She will give the U.S. Attorneys office a hard time because she is a former deputy public defender which was the bulk of her experience but left out because being a "public defender" does not make one federal judicial timber or quality. Poor choice.

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  28. Look, if we are going to have Comrade Obama in the Whitehouse, we might as well have Dimwit Navarro on the bench.

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  29. Navarro is certainly not deserving of a federal bench appointment. Her experience is limited, and she's not very bright. But it doesn't matter. Look at Johnny Rawlinson. Seventy percent of the attorneys in the Las Vegas valley were more qualified than Rawlinson, and she's now on the Ninth Circuit. What matters here is ethnicity and gender. And she qualifies. She will be just as good as the other numbskulls on the federal bench.

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  30. 70%. That's generous. I would say 98%.

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  31. Elissa Cadish
    Peggy Leen
    Franny Forsman

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