Judges face Senate questions

Friday, April 28, 2000 | 10:59 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday queried two Nevada judges nominated to fill open seats on the U.S. District Court.

Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., a committee member and the Senate's oldest member at 97, pitched questions at U.S. Magistrate Roger Hunt and Henderson Justice of the Peace Kent Dawson during a standard hearing for judicial nominees. Hunt and Dawson breezed through the questions that ran from death penalty issues to the role of federal courts.

The committee at a future unscheduled date will decide whether to recommend the two nominees to the full Senate for confirmation.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., recommended Dawson and Hunt to President Clinton for the federal bench openings. Clinton approved them. Reid and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., praised the two men Thursday as highly respected members of the legal system in Nevada.

Congress created two new positions on Nevada's overburdened four-member U.S. District Court to help ease the caseload.

In other moves, Reid and Clinton also endorsed current U.S. District Court Judge Johnnie Rawlinson to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a federal appeals court for Western states. That created yet a third opening, and Reid and Clinton have endorsed Federal Bankruptcy Judge Linda Riegle for that position. The Senate has not scheduled hearing dates for Rawlinson or Riegle.