WASHINGTON — President Obama chose an Indiana judge with some bipartisan support for his first judicial nomination Tuesday, announcing he wanted to elevate U.S. District Judge David F. Hamilton to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
White House aides described Hamilton as a careful judge who follows the law and also shows "empathy for real people with real problems."
They said Obama was sending a signal with this pick that he would consult Senate Republicans about his judicial nominations. "We are trying to set a tone here," an Obama advisor told reporters in a background briefing. "We are eager to put the confirmation wars behind us."
But within minutes of the White House announcement, a conservative legal group labeled Hamilton an "ultra-liberal" who was a "former leader of the Indiana chapter of the ACLU."
The Judicial Confirmation Network, which rallied support for President George W. Bush's court nominees, said Hamilton had issued "extreme rulings" -- including a decision that barred overtly Christian prayers in the Indiana Legislature and another that blocked enforcement of part of an Indiana abortion law that required pregnant women to make two trips to a clinic before having an abortion.
Hamilton said the required advance visit to hear in person a warning about the risks of abortion amounted to an "undue burden" on the woman's right. The 7th Circuit disagreed in a 2-1 ruling in 2002, and faulted Hamilton for delaying full enforcement of the law. It said waiting periods for abortion, including an advance visit, were constitutional.
The appeals court also set aside Hamilton's ruling on prayers in the Legislature. It said the taxpayers who sued to stop the prayers as unconstitutional had suffered no real harm, and therefore had no standing to sue.
Hamilton "is no moderate, as the Obama White House is trying to spin him," said Wendy Long, counsel for the Judicial Confirmation Network.
Although Obama's first nominee may not end Washington's war over judges, Hamilton drew wide praise from lawyers and law professors in Indiana, including the president of the local Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.
"I regard Judge Hamilton as an excellent jurist with a first-rate intellect," said Geoffrey Slaughter, a lawyer in Indianapolis. "He is unfailingly polite to lawyers. He asks tough questions to both sides, and he is very smart. His judicial philosophy is left of center, but well within the mainstream, between the 30-yard lines."
