Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson have agreed to establish a six-member commission to recommend candidates for filling federal judicial vacancies in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Federal Nominating Commission will be responsible for advising the senators on nominees to serve on the U.S. District Court and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The panel also will consider candidates to serve as U.S. attorney for the eastern and western districts of the state.

The senators chose three members each from the Wisconsin State Bar to serve on the commission. Baldwin appointed Michelle Behnke, a past president of the state bar; Frederic Fleishauer, a former Portage County circuit judge; and Barbara Zack Quindel, a labor lawyer. Johnson named William Curran, with Curran, Hollenbeck; Orton, S.C.; Richard Esenberg, president and general counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law; Liberty; and Paul Swanson, a partner in the Oshkosh firm of Steinhilber, Swanson, Mares, Marone & McDermott.

Baldwin, D-Madison, who last November became the first woman from Wisconsin and first openly gay person to be elected to the Senate, said filling judicial vacancies has been a top priority since she was sworn in in January.

Three federal judgeships are now vacant in Wisconsin.

“Senator Johnson and I were able to find common ground on an important issue for Wisconsin,” Baldwin said. “The people of Wisconsin deserve to have these vacancies filled with qualified public servants working for them and our fair and impartial judicial system.”

Johnson, R-Oshkosh, said he was pleased he and Baldwin could agree on a bipartisan charter for the commission and that he looked forward to filling the vacancies.

“Wisconsin is a diverse state, and voters have chosen a diverse set of representatives,” Johnson said. “I have always said that a balanced commission -- one that ensures that candidates have support from both sides of the aisle -- is the fairest way to proceed.”

Johnson made headlines not long after taking office in January 2011 when he blocked confirmation hearings for two judicial nominees by President Barack Obama, both of whom had been selected by a Wisconsin nominating commission.

The senator’s hold on the nomination of former University of Wisconsin law professor Victoria Nourse for the Seventh Circuit Court drew criticism from legal scholars across the country. In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders, 53 law professors accused Johnson of blocking the nomination for no apparent reason.

“A hold without reason is an arbitrary Senatorial process, for any nominee of any party,” the letter said. “It allows one senator the ability to bar a hearing and a vote on a nominee with broad-based support. The effect is an unbreakable one-person filibuster.”

Johnson contended Nourse, now a professor at Georgetown University Law School, should be revetted because her nomination expired with the end of the previous Congress. In an Op-ed article, Johnson said Nourse was unknown in the community and had “very little connection to the state of Wisconsin.”

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