NEW YORK, July 27 (Reuters) - Three judicial nominees to the Southern District of New York went before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, a day after another nominee, Paul Engelmayer, was confirmed unanimously by the Senate.
Engelmayer, who was first nominated in February, has served as a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, and previously worked as a federal prosecutor.
Edgardo Ramos, Andrew Carter, and Jesse Furman were questioned before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. They were introduced by Senator Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat who recommended their nominations to President Obama.
Ramos is currently a partner in the New York office of Connecticut-based Day Pitney. He previously served for ten years as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York, and as an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
Carter serves as a magistrate judge in the Eastern District of New York. He has previously served as a public defender and Legal Aid Society attorney.
Furman, a prosecutor in the Southern District, has worked as an attorney specializing in appellate matters and has prosecuted a range of drug and money-laundering cases.
The three Southern District nominees were joined at the hearing by James Gilstrap, a nominee to the Eastern District of Texas, and Jennifer Zipps, who has been nominated to fill the post of U.S. District Judge John Roll, the Arizona judge who was gunned to death in January.
The nominees had a straightforward hearing that was punctuated by a few light-hearted moments, as Schumer, Arizona Republican Jon Kyl and Minnesota Democrat Al Franken peppered them with questions about judicial temperament, Supreme Court precedent and the New York Yankees.
The only pointed questions were directed at Furman, over two articles he penned as an undergraduate student at Harvard, including one in which he criticized the National Rifle Association.
"Like many 18-year-olds, and especially 18-year-olds at Harvard University, I thought I knew a lot more than I actually did," said Furman, adding that his views on gun rights have evolved, and that if confirmed, he would respect recent Supreme Court precedent on the Second Amendment.
(Reporting by Carlyn Kolker)