Obama nominates two N.C. judges for 4th Circuit

President Barack Obama yesterday nominated two more judges, both from North Carolina, for the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

If appointed, Albert Diaz would be the first Hispanic to serve on the 15-judge court, and the other, James Wynn, would be the fourth African-American, said Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond School of Law.

The court hears appeals from Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

There are five vacancies on the court. Virginia Supreme Court Justice Barbara Keenan and Andre Davis, a federal judge in Maryland and an African-American, also were nominated by Obama and are awaiting Senate floor votes, Tobias said.

Diaz is a special superior-court judge in North Carolina, and Wynn sits on the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

Tobias said that if Davis and Wynn are appointed along with Diaz, the makeup of the court "would be very different from what we've seen before." Until former Richmond lawyer Roger L. Gregory was appointed to the court in 2000, all the judges were white.

-- Frank Green