Washington ? President Bush nominated federal judge Michael Chertoff as the new homeland security chief Tuesday, completing the second-term Cabinet with a former prosecutor who recently called for a new look at the tough terrorist detainee laws that he helped craft after the 9-11 attacks.

Chertoff, who took his seat on the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals less than two years ago, is expected to easily win Senate approval. He has won confirmation three times during his career, as U.S. attorney in New Jersey, assistant attorney general and appellate judge.

“Mike has shown a deep commitment to the cause of justice and an unwavering determination to protect the American people,” Bush told a White House audience that included Chertoff’s wife, Meryl, and their children. “Mike has also been a key leader in the war on terror.”

Chertoff would replace Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who helped build the new department after the terror attacks by combining 22 existing — and often competing — federal agencies. Ridge, often identified with the color-coded terror alerts, plans to step down from his post Feb. 1.

Ridge “leaves some very big shoes to fill,” Chertoff said.

Known by colleagues as a fiery workhorse, Chertoff headed the Justice Department’s criminal division at the time of the attacks. He said at the White House: “If confirmed as secretary, I will be proud to stand again with the men and women who form our front line against terror.”

Chertoff was the president’s second pick for the job. Bush’s first choice, former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, withdrew last month citing immigration problems regarding a nanny.

Chertoff’s resume includes a stint as a Supreme Court clerk and as the Senate Republicans’ chief counsel for the Clinton-era Whitewater investigation. He helped develop the USA Patriot Act, which greatly expanded the government’s surveillance and detention powers.

President Bush announces federal appeals court judge Michael Chertoff to be his new secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Chertoff headed the Justice Department's criminal division from 2001 to 2003, where he played a central role in the nation's legal response to the 9-11 attacks before the president named him to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.

His role in crafting that law, a measure that has become a flashpoint for critics who say it has eroded civil liberties, is expected to bring sharp questioning in Senate confirmation hearings.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday that as an architect of the act, Chertoff seemed to view the Bill of Rights “as an obstacle to national security rather than a guidebook for how to do security properly.”

But since joining the federal bench in Philadelphia in June 2003, Chertoff has repeatedly called for taking a fresh look at the policy of detaining terror suspects and has questioned the extent to which that process should be open to judicial review.