Sources tell me President Obama will nominate Kris Baker, a member of Little Rock’s Quattlebaum law firm, to a vacancy on the federal district court bench. The nomination could come very shortly.
You’ll remember that this is the vacancy — the last of four on the district bench that Obama’s had an opportunity to fill in Arkansas — for which the president rejected an initial batch of three nominees submitted by U.S. Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. A new batch recommended by Sen. Pryor after Lincoln’s defeat included Baker, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Duke, and Public Service Commission Chairman Colette Honorable.
Baker’s firm bio shows she focuses on business litigation.
Her nomination requires Senate confirmation. With an election less than a year away, that could prove tricky. Republicans have already been slow-walking Obama judicial nominations.
UPDATE: Quicker than I thought. Nomination official and news release follows.