DATE: Friday, June 27, 1997                 TAG: 9706270674

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

                                            LENGTH:   31 lines

BEACH JUDGE FRIEDMAN NOMINATED TO FEDERAL SEAT

President Clinton has nominated Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge Jerome B. Friedman to a vacant seat on the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Sen. Charles S. Robb had recommended Friedman to fill the vacant judgeship, and he announced on Thursday that the White House was taking that advice.

``I am confident Judge Friedman will serve with distinction as a federal district court judge,'' Robb said in a news release.

The post opened late last year when District Judge Robert G. Doumar took ``senior status,'' a form of semi-retirement.

Friedman's nomination is now subject to Senate confirmation. It is impossible to know how long that will take, but it could be a while, based on recent history.

The confirmation process has been backlogged for about a year, thanks to partisan bickering between the Republican Senate and the Democratic president. As a result, there are dozens of vacant federal judgeships nationwide.

Friedman, 53, is chief judge of Virginia Beach Circuit Court. He was named to the court in 1991 by then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder. Friedman had been a judge in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Jerome B. Friedman KEYWORDS: JUDGESHIPS

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