NATION : Panel OKs Court Nominations

WASHINGTON —  The Senate Judiciary Committee today voted to recommend confirmation of San Francisco attorney Vaughn Walker as a federal judge, rejecting claims that he should be disqualified because he waited too long to resign from San Francisco’s Olympic Club, which refuses to accept women as members.

“I haven’t found enough in the record to cause me to vote against his nomination,” Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), one of Walker’s critics, said as the panel sent the long-stalled candidacy--which originated with then President Ronald Reagan--to the full Senate by an 11-2 margin.