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The Hon. Timothy Dugan, currently a judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, has been nominated by President George W. Bush to replace the retiring Judge Rudy Randa on the Eastern District of Wisconsin. A former municipal prosecutor and private practitioner, he is a 1978 graduate of Marquette University Law School.

There is some question whether Judge Dugan will be confirmed before the Senate’s current session ends in January 2009. Senator Russ Feingold seems to think that the mythical “Thurmond Rule” may prevent that from happening. As it is, Cong. Sensenbrenner said that the White House hoped to nominate the Eastern and Western district judges together (J. Shabaz is also retiring), but the Senators were dragging their feet on the matter (though the White House reportedly has an inkling for Judge J Mac Davis). Apparently the WH decided to quit waiting to submit a pair and went ahead with just the ED of WI for the moment.

We’ll see if Judge Dugan gets a hearing from the Senate Judiciary Committee - 21 other judicial nominees are ahead of him in line for the chance to get grilled. Still, there’s reasonable hope because Feingold and Kohl are both on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ultimately, it will be their call whether to pressure Chairman Leahy to schedule a hearing soon, or if they want to wait for a potential President Obama administration to make a nomination…

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