The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing for Federal Circuit nominee Richard G. Taranto. The hearing is scheduled for February 29, 2012 at 2:30 ET in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The member of the Senate Judiciary Committee presiding over the hearing will be . . . Al Franken.
Mr. Taranto is a nominee for the only open seat on the Federal Circuit.
You can watch the hearing [here].
Usually Senator Grassley asks nominees what the Federal Circuit meant by the “irrefragable proof” standard in its 1999 decision Lachance v. White, 174 F.3d 1378 (1999). Maybe he’ll switch it up this time and ask Mr. Taranto for a definition of an “abstract idea.” Another good question might be whether Mr. Taranto believes that a judge has a duty to actually apply Research Corporation Technologies v. Microsoft, 627 F.3d 859 (2010), even if he/she doesn’t like it.