Federal Court Nominee Found "Not Qualified" by ABA

Today the American Bar Association ("ABA") announced that Superior Court Judge Vanessa Bryant, currently nominated by President Bush for a vacancy on our U.S. District Court, is "not qualified" for that position. The Hartford Courant reports:

Superior Court Judge Vanessa L. Bryant would be the first black woman named as a federal judge in New England. Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell recommended her to the president after U.S. District Judge Dominic J. Squatrito left his seat in November 2004 for a reduced caseload as a senior judge.

"A majority of the committee is of the opinion that Vanessa L. Bryant is not qualified for appointment as judge of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut," Stephen L. Tober, chairman of the ABA Committee on the Federal Judiciary, wrote in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

The ABA rates every nomination to the federal bench for Congress. Bryant's rating was released publicly Friday morning.

The "not qualified" rating is the lowest of three ratings the committee issues. A substantial majority of the committee found her not qualified while a minority found her qualified.

The highest rating is "well qualified."

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Consider this yet another setback for our judiciary. If a sitting superior court judge is unqualified to be a federal trial judge what does that say about our bench? Further, if the nomination is not confirmed how will future litigants feel about appearing before Judge Bryant? It will be interesting to see what happens with the nomination....