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Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Ind. Courts - Judge Tinder sails through confirmation hearing
Maureen Groppe of the Indianapolis Star Washington Bureau reports today:
The Indianapolis native's confirmation hearing was uncontentious and short, a contrast to the lengthy battles the president and Senate Democrats have had over some of the president's judicial nominees.Tinder received bipartisan backing from Indiana's senators, Republican Richard Lugar and Democrat Evan Bayh.
"He is the embodiment of good judicial temperament, intellect and even-handedness," Bayh said.
Lugar praised Tinder's opinions as "clear, well reasoned and thorough."The American Bar Association gave Tinder its highest rating of "well qualified."
The only questions for Tinder came from Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., who chaired the hearing and praised Tinder's "excellent reputation."
But Durbin did ask Tinder about a racial discrimination case Tinder dismissed that was later reversed on appeal. Tinder said he made a mistake in ruling that there was not enough evidence for the suit to go forward.
"I was incorrect," he said.
Pointing out that Tinder has been reversed on some of the cases in which he has ruled against an employee, prison inmate or criminal defendant but never when he ruled in favor of them, Durbin asked whether that record suggests any tendencies.
"I try to look at each case on its own merits and don't approach any case with a predisposition on how it should come out," Tinder said, adding that he's handled thousands of cases and been reversed on few.
Asked what about his background would give a poor person hope that he would be treated fairly in Tinder's courtroom, Tinder noted that when he served as a public defender, he worked with criminal defendants, many of them indigent.
"I've been in their jail cells talking to them, waiting for the juries," he said. "I've been in their homes, investigating their cases, talking with their families. ... I've been there so that should give them some comfort."
The Senate Judiciary Committee could vote in the next month on whether to confirm Tinder to the appeals court, which serves Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin and is one step below the Supreme Court.
Tinder was unanimously confirmed for his current position, which he has held since 1987, as well as when he was nominated to be U.S. attorney for Indiana's southern district in 1984.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 26, 2007 07:41 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts