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Sources: Pratter Set for 3rd Circuit Seat
Replacement on district court will be Reed Smith partner, formerly GC to the Senate Judiciary Committee, say sources
The Legal Intelligencer
October 12, 2007
Culminating months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, a Philadelphia federal judge will soon be nominated for a seat on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and will be replaced on the district court by a former lawyer for Sen. Arlen Specter, sources say.
In interviews, lawyers close to the nomination process said Specter had been lobbying for Reed Smith partner Carolyn Short to get the only remaining vacancy on the 3rd Circuit.
But when the White House rejected Short, the sources said, Specter agreed to a package deal in which U.S. District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter will get the 3rd Circuit seat and Short will later be nominated to replace Pratter.
News of the deal was first reported by Capitolwire. Pratter could not be reached and Short declined to comment.
Short has close ties to Specter. She served as general counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee from January 2005 until February 2006, while Specter was serving as chairman.
And although her one-year stint in Washington was a brief one, it was rather eventful because Short worked side-by-side with Specter on the confirmation hearings for Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
When 3rd Circuit Judge Franklin S. Van Antwerpen took senior status in October 2006, sources said, Specter began lobbying for Short to replace him.
But the White House rejected Short, sources said, because of her strong ties to Democrats.Short is a Republican, but her husband, Joseph Torsella, is a prominent Democrat with strong ties to Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell. Torsella ran unsuccessfully in the 2004 Democratic primary for the congressional seat now held by Rep. Allyson Schwartz. He now serves as president and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
One lawyer said Short's status as a longtime registered Republican was not enough to outweigh her ties by marriage to the Democrats.
"This is an especially conservative White House -- much more so than Bush's father or Reagan -- and I think you really see that in judicial nominations," the lawyer said.
Another lawyer said President Bush is more conservative in judicial nominations because "he doesn't want to repeat his father's mistakes, namely [Justice David] Souter," whose evolution into one of the Supreme Court's most reliably liberal justices is perceived by conservatives as the elder Bush's greatest error.
Several lawyers said the deal makes sense because the White House is always more concerned about its nominees to appellate courts than it is about the district courts.
"For the most part, the district courts are filled by the senators, and the White House only rarely rejects a nominee who is put up by a senator from the same party," one lawyer said. "But the circuits are a whole different ball game."
Lawyers disagreed when asked about Pratter's and Short's chances of winning confirmation.Several lawyers also said that while the deal may have been struck between Specter and the White House, it was possible that the Democrat-controlled Senate could simply take no action on Pratter's nomination, leaving the vacancy for the next president.
But two other lawyers said they expected Pratter to be confirmed because Specter, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, has a good relationship with the chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.As those lawyers see it, if Pratter gets a hearing before the committee and wins its recommendation, she is very likely to be confirmed.
"In this political climate, with a very unpopular president and with next year being an election year, it all comes down to whether you get a hearing," one lawyer said.
Lawyers agreed that Pratter, who served on the Eastern District of Pennsylvania bench since June 2004, is not likely to be treated as a "controversial" nominee.
"She's already been through this process once, and unless she did something radical on the district court that I haven't heard of, I don't see her having any problems," one lawyer said.
Pratter, 58, graduated from Stanford University and earned her law degree in 1975 at the University of Pennsylvania.
Prior to joining the federal bench, her entire career was at Duane Morris, where she concentrated her practice in commercial litigation, professional liability and insurance law. For several years, Pratter also served as general counsel to Duane Morris.
Short graduated from Notre Dame University and earned her law degree in 1980 from Notre Dame Law School. Before joining Reed Smith in 1989, Short worked as a prosecutor in the Philadelphia district attorney's office, including several years as a homicide prosecutor.
