[ought-six]

“She has been an appellate-level judge for that entire tenure of 14 years.”

In STATE court, not Federal court. Again, my point was and is that her lack of experience on the FEDERAL bench can give senate fence-sitters an excuse to deny her nomination. As I also stated, the lack of judicial experience is in and of itself not an impediment to affirmation, but can — and if wielded by a senate fence-sitter — will be an excuse to vote NAY on a nomination. Believe me, if Lagoa is the nominee Collins and Murkowski will cite her lack of federal experience as a justification for voting NAY.

[Republican Wildcat]

Well 14 years as a judge is well over a decade of experience, so that is not a "lack of judicial experience." The fact that much of it was at the state level somehow indicates a "lack of experience" as a judge when you've been at it for 14 years is just not a very strong argument.

Believe me, if Lagoa is the nominee Collins and Murkowski will cite her lack of federal experience as a justification for voting NAY.

That argument would have been difficult sell given they highly regard Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who served as a judge for 6 years at the state level and was a member of the Arizona Court of Appeals when Reagan nominated her for the Supreme Court and she was confirmed unanimously.