Obama nominates Selby, Ong for federal judgeships

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – President Barack Obama has nominated former Indiana Supreme Court Justice Myra Selby to the 7th U.S. District Court of Appeals.

The White House on Tuesday announced Selby’s nomination and that of Deputy U.S. Attorney Winfield Ong to a seat on the U.S. District Court for Southern Indiana.

Selby became the first woman and first African-American on the Indiana Supreme Court in 1995 and served until 1999, when she retired to private practice. Since then, she has chaired a state commission on increasing gender and racial fairness in the legal system.

Ong has been the criminal prosecution chief for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana since 2014. He has served as a federal prosecutor since 1996. He also was a deputy U.S. attorney from 1989 to 1995.