Committee Clears Bianco, Vitaliano for Eastern District Bench
The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday approved by a voice vote President Bush’s choices to fill the last two vacancies on the Eastern District bench: Deputy Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph F. Bianco and acting Supreme Court Justice Eric N. Vitaliano. Mr. Bianco, one of five deputy assistants in the U.S. Justice Department’s criminal division, was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District, where he rose to become co-chief of the organized crime and terrorism unit. Justice Vitaliano, a conservative Democrat who supports the death penalty and opposes abortion, was a state assemblyman representing Staten Island for 18 years before being elected to the Civil Court in 2001. Democratic Senator Charles E. Schumer had recommended Justice Vitaliano as a part of a bipartisan deal worked out two years ago to end an impasse in federal court nominations in New York. � Daniel Wise
