In a move hailed as a compromise, President George W. Bush has withdrawn the nomination of Stephen Murphy to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and has agreed to replace him with a Clinton-era nominee.
In Murphy’s place, Bush on Tuesday tapped Helene White, a Michigan Court of Appeals judge whose earlier nomination to the 6th Circuit was blocked by the Republican-controlled Senate during President Bill Clinton’s second term. White was first nominated in 1997, but her nomination languished for more than four years — the longest for any judicial candidate in Senate history.
