Toledo Blade – Nearly 40 years ago, James Carr moved to Toledo to teach law at the University of Toledo.

Not long after that, he was recruited to serve as a federal magistrate judge.

Now, approaching his 70th birthday and after having spent more than 30 years as a federal judicial officer – both as a magistrate and since, 1994, as a district judge – Judge Carr said he's ready to retire, although not completely.

The chief judge for the U.S. District Court's northern division, Judge Carr sent a letter last month to President Obama announcing his intention to retire from active service and take on the role of a senior judge.

That means that soon there will be an opening.

…

The process to select Judge Carr's successor is left to the state's U.S. senators.

Meghan Dubyak, spokesman for U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, said he and U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, a Republican, have created a bipartisan commission to review potential candidates and make recommendations to the other senators.

She said the process was used to fill the last two vacancies for federal judge statewide.

"Traditionally, the senator in the President's party nominates the appointee," she said. "Senator Brown helped create a commission made up of appointed members from both senators. Senator Brown's process for making nomination recommendations breaks with those employed in the past in Ohio," she added.

"The comprehensive process is based on the recommendation of a truly bipartisan judicial commission."

Read the whole article »