AUGUSTA, Maine — Former U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II is likely to be headed back to the bench.
Gov. Paul LePage last week nominated Delahanty to serve as an active retired Superior Court justice.
Delahanty, 71, of Falmouth previously served as a Superior Court judge from 1983 to 2010, when President Barack Obama appointed him to serve as Maine’s top federal prosecutor.
In March, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked every U.S. attorney appointed by Obama to resign rather than to wait for replacements to be appointed by President Donald Trump.
Delahanty said then that he was not interested in retiring.
“I think I can do the job,” he said Wednesday of his most recent nomination. “I have done it before.”
The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing June 19 on Delahanty’s nomination so the Senate can hold a confirmation vote before the Legislature adjourns June 21.
As an active retired or part-time judge, Delahanty will be assigned cases by Justice Roland Cole, chief judge of the Superior Court. If confirmed, he will be one of eight active retired judges on the Superior Court.
Active retired judges are paid a stipend of $300 a day, according to Mary Ann Lynch, spokeswoman for the court system.
A native of Lewiston, Delahanty graduated in 1967 graduate from St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont, and earned his law degree from the University of Maine Law School in 1970. He worked as an associate at Marshall, Raymond & Beliveau from 1970 until 1974, then worked as a prosecutor in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties until 1979.
He served as the U.S. attorney for Maine for 10 months in the Jimmy Carter administration in 1979 and 1980 before returning to private practice.
Delahanty was a Superior Court justice from 1983 until 2010.