William J. Nardini testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing to be a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Sept. 25, 2019. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM.

Federal prosecutor William J. Nardini on Wednesday appeared to get a step closer to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as he encountered largely friendly questioning from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Nardini, a 19-year veteran of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Connecticut, was nominated for a Second Circuit seat by President Donald Trump in August. He was introduced by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the lone Democrat to ask questions during the confirmation hearing, which lasted a little less than an hour. Nardini shared the witness table with Ninth Circuit nominee Danielle J. Hunsaker, currently a state court judge in Oregon.

Blumenthal in his introductory remarks called Nardini a "very active and highly regarded member" of the Connecticut U.S. Attorney's Office, and noted the nominee had experience prosecuting all sorts of federal crimes. Nardini, in his own prepared remarks, thanked three judges for whom he clerked early in his career: Second Circuit Judges Jose A. Cabranes and Guido Calabresi, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

When Blumenthal asked Nardini which of the judges had made the most significant impact on him, Nardini demurred saying making such a choice would be the equivalent of picking your favorite parent.

"I do think that all of them taught the importance of keeping an open mind," Nardini said. The nominee said that he had come out of his clerkships with the notion that being a judge means following the facts and the law, "wherever it may take you," even if it's not the outcome where you'd intuitively come out.

A Fulbright Scholar in Italy in 1998, Nardini earned his law degree from Yale Law School and was executive editor of the Yale Law Journal.