Washington State Judge Henry Floyd has one arm in his new judicial robe.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, unanimously and without debate on Thursday, moved Floyd's nomination to the Senate floor, where both Democrats and Republicans expect it to sail through.

"Obviously, that's non-controversial," U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said of the vote on Floyd and five other judges whose nominations came before the committee.

Floyd, 55, now presides in the state's 13th judicial circuit, which includes Greenville and Pickens counties. At the suggestion of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., he was nominated by President Bush in May to fill the vacancy created with the promotion of former U.S. District Court Judge Dennis Shedd.

Shedd, of Columbia, now sits on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the judicial level just below the U.S. Supreme Court.

At Floyd's confirmation hearing in July, U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., predicted that Floyd's nomination "will go through unanimously."

Floyd would become the 12th of 12 judges on the federal district court in South Carolina.

A trial court judge for the past 12 years, he has tried some of South Carolina's most complicated and publicized cases.

Most recently, since last year, he monitored the court-ordered supervision of the state Department of Mental Health, which has been faulted for the prolonged time mentally ill inmates spent in jail, instead of state hospitals. After his nomination, Floyd announced he would pass oversight of that case to another state judge.

"It's always been my ambition to try some really good and complex cases, and most will be in federal court," Floyd said shortly after his nomination.

No date has been set for a vote of the full Senate on Floyd, who was not present at Wednesday's vote.