Lawrence attorney and former Kansas Attorney General Steve Six is scheduled to face questions from Senate Judiciary Committee members Tuesday afternoon in Washington about his nomination to the federal appellate bench.

According to the committee’s confirmation hearing schedule, Six’s hearing is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. Central time Tuesday in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The committee has a webcast of its hearings available on its website.

President Barack Obama nominated Six, a Democrat, in March to serve on the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to replace another Lawrence resident — Judge Deanell Reece Tacha, who was named Pepperdine University’s law school dean and scheduled to start at the California school June 1. Six would need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Six, who grew up in Lawrence and earned a Kansas University law degree, last November lost his attorney general re-election bid to Derek Schmidt, and he has been working since January as a partner at the Lawrence firm Stevens & Brand. Then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius appointed Six in January 2008 to serve as the state’s attorney general after Paul Morrison resigned amid a sex scandal.

Before that Six was a Douglas County district judge from 2005 to 2008.

Neither of Kansas’ two U.S. senators, Republicans Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran, serve on the judiciary committee.

Moran, also a KU law school graduate, said Monday the hearing is the first step in the nomination process. The senator, who was in Lawrence for a talk with constituents, said he hadn’t decided whether to support Six’s nomination.

“I assume at some point in time Judge Six and I will have a conversation,” Moran said.

The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals is based in Denver, and its judges hear appeals in federal cases that originate in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.