Hank supports White House nominees for Northern District judges
WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee member and former Chairman of the Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Rep. Hank Johnson (GA-04) announced today his support of President Barack Obama’s nominations of a Georgia federal public defender and a U.S. Magistrate Judge to serve as district judges on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
The nominations, which require Senate confirmation, were announced January 25.
“I am pleased that President Obama has nominated two highly qualified candidates to the Federal Bench in the Northern District of Georgia,” said Johnson, lifelong attorney and former judge. “He has taken time to get it right – right on diversity and right on qualifications.”
United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Georgia Linda T. Walker and staff attorney at the Federal Defender Program for the Northern District of Georgia
Natasha Perdew Silas were nominated to judgeships vacant since early 2009.
Walker has served as magistrate judge since 2000. Prior to her appointment to the bench, she worked for Fulton County in several capacities — as Deputy County Attorney from 1992 to 1997, as county attorney from 1997 to 1999, and as director of the County’s Board of Registration and Elections in 1999.
Judge Walker worked as a litigation associate at the firm of Webb & Daniel in Atlanta from 1990 to 1992. From 1989 to 1990, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable G. Ernest Tidwell of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. She received her J.D. in 1989 from the University of Georgia School of Law, her M.S. in 1987 from Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University), and her B.S. in 1983 from Southern University.
Silas has worked as a Federal Public Defender since 1994, during which time she has tried more than 20 cases to completion. She previously worked as a litigation associate at the law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan in Atlanta from 1992 to 1994. Silas received her J.D. in 1992 from the University of Virginia School of Law and her B.S. in 1988 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
More than 3,500 civil and criminal cases were filed in 2010 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, headquartered in Atlanta. The district is allotted 11 judgeships.
Federal district court judges, appointed under Article III of the Constitution, are nominated by the president, confirmed by the Senate and serve lifetime appointments upon good behavior. Their current annual salary is $174,000.
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