news-record.com

President Barack Obama continues to pick experienced, mainstream North Carolina judges for federal court positions.

The latest is Catherine Eagles of Greensboro. The senior resident Superior Court judge in Guilford County was nominated Wednesday to serve on the federal bench in the Middle District of North Carolina. The lifetime appointment is subject to Senate confirmation.

The selection of Eagles follows the president's nominations last year of Judges James Wynn and Albert Diaz for seats on the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Both received strong bipartisan votes of support in the Senate Judiciary Committee and are waiting for final confirmation by the full Senate.

Republican Sen. Richard Burr endorsed Wynn and Diaz, and Thursday he praised Eagles as a "well-qualified candidate."

Indeed, she is. In 17 years on the Superior Court bench, she's proved to be a hardworking judge who applies the law firmly and fairly. While the federal courts often become a political battleground between Democrats and Republicans, that has not been the case in regard to Obama's selection of North Carolina judges. His nominees so far well represent the broad mainstream of this state's nonpartisan judiciary.

The nomination process was designed to minimize political influences. Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan created a panel of legal experts, headed by former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Burley Mitchell, to evaluate candidates for federal courthouse positions. Based on its recommendations, she forwarded the names of three candidates for this job to the White House. In addition to Eagles, they were Superior Court Judge Edwin Wilson of Rockingham County and Anita Earls, executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice in Durham.

Earls served as a deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights during the Clinton administration and was an Obama delegate at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She might have been an attractive candidate politically to the White House. But Eagles' judicial experience appears to have carried more weight, as it should have.

With both Hagan and Burr in support, Eagles should find the confirmation process slow but sure. The two senators' cooperation on judicial confirmations is a welcome change from years past when Republican Jesse Helms and Democrat John Edwards blocked North Carolina nominees for political reasons. It certainly helps that Obama is choosing North Carolina judges whose records show they'll make positive contributions to the federal courts. Catherine Eagles is the latest example.