WASHINGTON - President Bush is expected to nominate California Supreme Court justice Janice Rogers Brown to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, administration officials and sources close to Brown said Friday.
The appointment, pending completion of FBI background checks, would be apt to meet stiff resistance from Senate Democrats concerned that the conservative jurist is being groomed for an even higher judicial post.
The appeals panel, which has jurisdiction over appeals of rulings by federal agencies, generally is considered second in prestige only to the U.S. Supreme Court. For that reason, it has served as a judicial launching pad -- three of the high court's nine justices are alumni of the federal panel.
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Her judicial record is almost in perfect harmony with Bush administration thinking: she supports limits on abortion rights, for instance, and routinely votes to uphold the death penalty.
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