WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee gave Paul “P.K.” Holmes III, President Barack Obama’s nominee for an open federal judgeship in Arkansas, a warm reception at a confirmation hearing Wednesday.
Holmes, a lawyer in private practice and the former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, was nominated to be U.S. district judge in the same district where he served as a prosecutor.
If confirmed, Arkansas would still have two open federal judgeships, one in the Eastern District and one in the Western District. The state’s two Democratic U.S. senators, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, sent the White House recommendations for those spots in March 2009.
Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, and Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, were the only two senators sitting on the panel, except for Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who popped into the hearing room for about 30 seconds to wish Holmes a “swift and uneventful confirmation.”
Whitehouse was a U.S. attorney in Rhode Island during the same time that Holmes held that position in the Western District of Arkansas.
Lincoln and Pryor also stopped by and gave short speeches in support of Holmes.
Franken said that since Whitehouse recommended Holmes so highly, “I’m going to give you a pass” and didn’t ask Holmes any questions.
While he didn’t commit to voting one way or another, Sessions said that a friend of his who worked in the U.S. Department of Justice’s executive office for U.S. attorneys, whom Sessions did not identify, said Holmes was “top-notch.”
Sessions asked the nominee only one question: whether he would continue to use judges’ sentencing guidelines. Until the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Booker gave judges more latitude, sentences within federal guidelines were mandatory.
“I would continue to use the guidelines because they avoid disparities in sentencing,” Holmes responded. “There’s a presumption these guidelines are reasonable.”
Holmes did not make an opening statement, other than to introduce his wife, Kay, who attended the hearing. He declined an interview request.
Since 2001, Holmes has been a litigator at Warner, Smith & Harris, a Fort Smith law firm. From 1993 until 2001, he was a U.S. attorney, appointed by President Bill Clinton.
Holmes, born in 1951, has represented a variety of clients.
Early in his career, he was tapped by a U.S. district judge to defend Cuban refugees housed at Fort Chaffee.
More recently, in a 2003 criminal case, he represented Robert Hash, a Tyson Foods Inc. vice president who had been charged with violating immigration laws. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee acquitted Hash.
He also represented Wal-Mart Stores Inc. In 2005, Holmes negotiated a settlement agreement after a grand jury investigation alleged that the retailer had violated immigration laws at its stores in 20 states. No criminal charges were filed against the company, which agreed to pay an $11 million civil penalty and implement a corporate compliance program, according to materials Holmes provided the committee.
Pryor praised Holmes at the hearing, noting that he had known the nominee since Pryor was about 12. In 1974, Holmes was a campaign aide on former U.S. Sen. David Pryor’s - Mark’s father - successful campaign for Arkansas governor.
He has an “outstanding character,” Mark Pryor said.
“He’s got great experience,” added Lincoln.
The committee will keep its record open for one week on Holmes and four other judicial nominees who also testified at the hearing. A committee vote has not been scheduled. Pryor said he is optimistic of a committee vote and full Senate approval by the end of the year.
Lincoln and Pryor said they had not heard from the White House regarding when or if the nominations for Arkansas’ two other open seats would be sent to the Senate.
But they both seemed to be losing patience.
Three of the candidates submitted by the senators for an open judgeship in the Eastern District to replace Judge Harry Barnes are out of the running. State Circuit Judge James Hudson died in May 2009. Carlton Jones, who will begin serving as an elected prosecutor in the 8th Judicial District-South in January, has indicated that he was no longer being considered, and the office of U.S. Magistrate Judge Caroline Craven has confirmed that she is no longer in the running.
The senators’ other pick was Susan Hickey of El Dorado, Barnes’ longtime law clerk.
Pryor said that although he hadn’t heard from the White House recently, Hickey hadn’t been ruled out.
“The White House is now moving to the next name on the letter, which is Susan Hickey,” he said. “My understanding is they’re looking at her.”
Pryor said that holdups in judicial nominations frequently occur because of “games being played in the Senate,” where senators block votes on nominees either becauseof disagreements with their judicial philosophies or to make political points.
“In this case, I don’t think that’s what’s happened,” Pryor said. “Quite frankly, we’re waiting on the White House. It’s trying my patience a bit.”
Lincoln attributed the delay, in part, to personnel changes at the White House. Pryor said that having two U.S. Supreme Court picks in the first 18 months of Obama’s presidency sapped attention at the White House away from vetting lower-court nominees.
“This has been kind of a challenging process,” Lincoln said. “It’s taking them a while over there. It’s been frustrating.”
Front Section, Pages 4 on 09/30/2010