CT Bar Association Finds Bryant Unqualified

Today the Connecticut Bar Association announced that, like the American Bar Association, it had found Superior Court Judge Vanessa Bryant "not qualified" to be a U.S. District Judge. (To access that story, please click on the headline of this post.)

On Wednesday, various groups came out in favor of Judge Bryant's nomination. You can access the Hartford Courant's coverage here: http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctbryant0517.artmay17,0,6254832.story

The key question, of course, is what effect these ratings will ultimately have on the nomination. The NY Times reported on May 6 that the rating "makes Judge Bryant only the sixth nominee out of 445 jurists since 1999 to be deemed not qualified to serve. Of the five others to receive unqualified rankings, three were later confirmed by the United States Senate and two withdrew from consideration."

An additional question comes to mind: if Judge Bryant's nomination fails, will she continue as a Superior Court Judge? According to Judge Bryant's resume, she was confirmed to the Superior Court in 1998, which would mean that her term is up this year. It remains to be seen whether these evaluations will have any effect on her renomination to the state bench, but certainly it's an issue that will be addressed. Of course, the renomination process has become a farce of late, with several controversial judges -- including a judge who admitted to committing two misdemeanors -- being renominated and confirmed.