The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday for Superior Court Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson, President Obama’s nominee for the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit . It’s unclear whether her less-than-unanimous support by an American Bar Association committee that evaluates all federal judicial nominees will have an effect on her confirmation.

Thompson, who has been a trial-court judge in Rhode Island for 21 years — first on the District Court and, since 1997, the Superior Court — maintains the vigorous support of Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, who recommended her to replace Senior Circuit Judge Bruce M. Selya.

“Judge Thompson has a long and distinguished record as a lawyer and a judge in Rhode Island for over 20 years and is a highly qualified nominee with an exemplary record,” the senators said in a joint statement last month. “The ABA plays a limited advisory role, and has nowhere near the familiarity with judicial candidates that we do in Rhode Island. It is up to the Senate to decide who is qualified to serve on the federal bench –– and we are confident that our colleagues in the Senate will support Judge Thompson.”

That support could hold sway with other senators, particularly as Democrats hold a filibuster-proof majority, said Amy Steigerwalt, a Georgia State University professor who is about to publish a book about judicial nominations.

Thompson, 58, was the first female African-American judge on both of the state courts. If confirmed, she’d be the first black judge and only the second woman to serve on the Boston appeals court.

Retired Superior Court Judge Stephen J. Fortunato Jr. –– who, with lawyer Daniel V. McKinnon, hired Thompson to work in his Pawtucket law firm in the 1970s when she was just three years out of law school, and who, in more recent years, served as her colleague on the Superior Court –– predicted smooth sailing.

“I thought she was superb” as a young lawyer, he said in an interview Monday. “She was unfailingly courteous to everyone — clients, staff and the other lawyers in the office … She was very competent and capable and self-assured,” said Fortunato, who now teaches at Roger Williams University School of Law.

Fortunato said he was “amazed” that at least five members of the 15-person ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary would find Thompson unqualified for the appeals court.

“It was mind-boggling when I read that. To me, that means that there were probably some right-wing reactionaries on the ABA committee who decided to give her a thumbs-down for political or ideological reasons. I would call her a moderate in her approach to judging. She’s not as left-wing as I am,” he said.

Thompson is the only one of Mr. Obama’s 27 judicial nominees to receive not-qualified ratings from the ABA committee, according to Stephen Miller, a spokesman for Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “This is what we consider an outlier as far as ABA ratings go,” Miller said. He said he did not know how the seven GOP committee members might vote and observed that even some nominees deemed well qualified by the ABA have been criticized as not qualified.

Ten of President Obama’s 27 nominees have won confirmation so far, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Miller contrasted that with the record of former President George W. Bush, who got 18 of 64 nominees confirmed during the similar period in his first term.

There are currently 98 federal judicial vacancies and 16 nominations pending.

Thompson’s hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. with proceedings Web-cast at http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings. Whitehouse is chairing the hearing; Reed, who is not a member of the committee, will introduce Thompson.

The nominee is permitted to make a brief opening statement, and then committee members may ask questions. There are no outside witnesses.

After the hearing, the record is usually kept open for one week for the 19 committee members to submit follow-up questions. Once the nominee responds to those questions, the nomination is available to be listed for a committee vote. If a majority of the committee votes to advance the nomination, it is reported to the full Senate for consideration.

BIO Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson

AGE: 58 RESIDENCE: Cranston CURRENT POSITION: Superior Court judge since 1997. BACKGROUND: District Court judge 1988 to 1997. Before that, a senior partner in the law firm Thompson & Thompson; an assistant Providence city solicitor; senior staff attorney with Rhode Island Legal Services. EDUCATION: Brown University, BA in English; Boston University School of Law, juris doctorate. FAMILY: Husband, District Court Judge William C. Clifton; three children.

kmulvane@projo.com