Denny Chin Gets Nod for Second Circuit Vacancy

[WSJ Law Blog]

Denny Chin, the Manhattan federal judge perhaps best known for sentencing convicted Ponzi-scheme operator Bernard Madoff to 150 years in prison earlier this year, will be nominated to fill a vacancy on the Second Circuit.

The White House intends to nominate U.S. District Judge Denny Chin to the appeals court, the office of U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) confirmed Wednesday.

“We told the White House that Judge Chin would be an outstanding choice,” Sen. Schumer said in a statement. “Even in the most high-profile of cases he has been unflappable, erudite and steadily applied the law.”

The impending nomination was reported on the New York Times Web site on Wednesday afternoon.

A clerk for Judge Chin said the judge had no comment on Wednesday.

Judge Chin, 55 years old, was born in Hong Kong and graduated from Princeton University and Fordham University School of Law. A former federal prosecutor, he was nominated to the federal court by President Clinton in 1994.

In this fifteen-year tenure, the judge has presided over many high-profile trials. In 2007, he sentenced Texas oil trader Oscar Wyatt Jr., then 83 years old, to more than a year in prison for his role in payments to Iraq that violated the United Nations’ oil-for-food program.

The judge has also shown leniency at times, including his 2007 reversal of a jury verdict of fraud against former New York Stock Exchange supervisor David Finnerty. It is unusual for judges to reverse jury verdicts. Judge Chin currently is presiding over a copyright lawsuit against Google Inc. in connection with its efforts to gain copyright licenses over millions of digital books.

There are currently four open judgeships on the Second Circuit, including the one formerly held by new U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. A fifth appellate judgeship is expected to open on the circuit this autumn.