Senate confirms Alaska justice to U.S. appeals court

Christen's 202-day wait between her nomination and the Senate's 95-3 vote was blamed on partisan politics that continue to hold up confirmation of 20 other federal judicial appointments despite their having been cleared by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Voting no were Republicans Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky and David Vitter of Louisiana.

Christen, a 50-year-old Washington state native, is the first Alaska woman to serve on the 9th Circuit. She served seven years as a Superior Court judge and was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 2009 by then-Gov. Sarah Palin.

The appointment to the state's high court went against the urging of a conservative group because Christen once served on the board of Planned Parenthood. She served on the board in the 1990s before the organization started performing abortions in Alaska in 2003.

The Alaska Family Council, a conservative Christian group, said the pick would put another activist on the court and she was the more liberal of two judges recommended for the post by the Alaska Judicial Council, an independent citizen's commission that evaluates judicial appointments for the governor.

Christen said after the vote she was pleased by the outcome.

"It's quite overwhelming and humbling, for sure," she said. "I really didn't know what to expect."

Christen will remain in Anchorage and said she expects to do quite a bit of traveling in her new role. She expects to receive her judicial commission within a week or two and said her best guess is she'll begin the new post with the San Francisco-based court in January. For now, she will remain busy on the state Supreme Court, she said.

Circuit judges receive an annual salary of $184,500, according to 9th Circuit officials.

U.S. Democratic Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska recommended Christen to President Obama for the opening created when Judge Andrew Kleinfeld of Fairbanks took senior status, an alternative to retirement that allows judge to maintain an office and handle at least 25 percent of an active judge's caseload. "She is one of the greatest legal minds and one of the most caring individuals Alaska has to offer," Begich said of Christen on the Senate floor before the vote. "I am honored to support her for this position and to count her as a friend."

Christen also had the support of Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Before the vote, Murkowski praised Christen as an experienced, well-rounded lawyer and jurist.

"She is an individual with a keen intellect and an impeccable reputation for integrity," Murkowski said. "She is highly regarded across the ideological spectrum in Alaska as a judge who keeps politics and ideology off the bench."

The 9th Circuit is the largest and busiest federal court, with 29 authorized judgeships and an annual caseload exceeding 13,000 filings. It has three more vacancies. Two of President Barack Obama's other nominees for the nine-state appellate bench await Senate approval, and a third seat has been open for seven years because of a dispute between the senators from California and Idaho over which state gets to vet potential choices.

Former U.S. District Judge Mary H. Murguia of Arizona joined the 9th Circuit last year after a relatively brief wait for confirmation, compared with the grueling and ultimately futile effort by the White House to get University of California, Berkeley, law professor Goodwin Liu confirmed.

Information in this story was from the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press.