Vowing to be fair and not to legislate from the bench, Utahn Tena Campbell cruised through confirmation hearings Tuesday as she aims to become Utah's first female federal judge.
Campbell, an assistant U.S. attorney for Utah, faced only a few softball questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee after Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, introduced her. He called the hearing amazingly fast, just a week after her nomination."The likelihood that we would give a difficult time to someone whom the chair has brought before us is minimal," joked Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich.
But he asked the toughest of the handful of all-easy questions posed: Under what circumstances would she feel it is warranted for a federal judge to seize control of a prison system, as one did in Michigan?
"A judge should be very careful and make sure the court is involved only when required by law," she said.
The committee - which often grills nominees to ensure they will follow current law and not legislate from the bench - asked Campbell about that in a written questionnaire it released.
Campbell said that after prosecuting cases in federal courts for 13 years, she's found "that the hallmark of a fine judge, especially at the trial court level, is the ability simply to apply the law as it exists in a fair, even-handed and sound manner."
She added, "I do not see myself as a judicial activist; rather, I would hope to be seen as one with a fair command of the rules of procedure, the rules of evidence and the substantive law to be applied to the case before me."
Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., questioned her membership in the Fort Douglas/Hidden Valley Country Club and whether the club is open to people of all races. She said it is and that such questions are appropriate.
Simon was satisfied and told her, "I am confident you will be confirmed." The committee and full Senate must still vote on it.
Hatch said he has participated in confirmation of almost all current federal judges, "And Tena would rate right up there with any of them."
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who also helped introduce her, said, "She is a fine woman who will represent Utah very well and will handle herself with great distinction on the bench."
Disclosure forms she filed with the committee show she and her husband have assets of $676,532 and liabilities (a mortgage and car loan) of $139,000 for a net value of $537,532.
She also noted in questionnaires that her husband, Gordon W. Camp-bell, also an assistant U.S. attorney, will never appear in her court. Also, she said she will not hear cases that were in the U.S. attorney's office while she was an assistant.
She told the committee in her questionnaire that among the 10 most significant cases that she prosecuted included convicting Paul G. Holt of bilking elderly people out of $4 million; convicting Jerald Engstrom, a former vice president of Commercial Security Bank, of misapplying $2.1 million of its money; and convicting George D. Galloway of kidnapping and abusing a woman for four days.
She included in her top 10 a case that she lost: prosecuting Gary Sheets for securities fraud shortly after his wife, Kathleen, and his partner, Steve Christensen, had been murdered in the infamous Mark Hofmann bombings.
"It was a good lesson for me on how to try a case in the glare of publicity and how to go on with my job after a loss," she said.
Campbell, 50, has been an assistant U.S. attorney since 1982 and was a deputy Salt Lake County attorney and an associate in two Salt Lake County law firms. She holds a law degree and master's degree from Arizona State University.