Lawrence High School graduate Sri Srinivasan won unanimous approval Thursday from the Senate Judiciary Committee to serve on the powerful federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.

The bipartisan vote sends Srinivasan’s nomination to the full Senate to fill the seat on the court that was vacated by now-U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. The are four vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, and no one has been confirmed to it since 2006.

President Barack Obama nominated Srinivasan in June. A 1985 graduate of Lawrence High, Srinivasan has received support from across the political spectrum.

In a statement, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said after meeting with Srinivasan, “From our conversation, I have found Sri to be a highly qualified candidate with a distinguished career in the private sector and in the Departments of Justice of the Bush and Obama Administrations. Mr. Srinivasan is one of Kansas’ most accomplished legal minds and among the nation’s leading appellate lawyers. I intend to support his confirmation.”

Srinivasan is currently the principal deputy solicitor general of the United States and has argued many cases in both private practice and for the government before the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Courts of Appeals.

Srinivasan, 46, was born in India, but he moved at a young age with his family to Lawrence, where he grew up. He was a Lawrence High point guard on the basketball team in the 1980s and spoke at the LHS graduation ceremony in 1985, according to Journal-World archives.

He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree and law degree from Stanford University. He also has a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford and teaches at Harvard.

Srinivasan served as a Supreme Court law clerk for now-retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. He was named to his post in the solicitor general’s office in 2011 and has also served as an intern for retired U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Deanell Reece Tacha, also a Lawrence resident.