The Enlightenment

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Welcome to The Judiciary at Noon! Take a break from work to get an update on the oft-neglected third branch of the United States government, the judicial branch.

The series covers any updates to the federal judiciary, including any new judges confirmed, any deaths, resignations, or retirements from the courts, and any new vacancies that have occurred. It includes political analysis at the very end. All information spans the previous week.

Confirmations

No judges were confirmed for the week of June 6 to 13, 2024.

Vacancies

• Jun. 06, 2024: Chief Judge William Paul Johnson of the District of New Mexico announced that he would assume senior status on January 24th, 2025.
• Jun. 10, 2024: Judge Christopher Charles Conner of the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced he would be retiring on January 17th, 2025.

72 vacancies remain on the federal judiciary, an increase from 70 a week ago.

Retirements, Deaths, and Resignations

• Jun. 11, 2024: Senior Judge Harry Daniel Leinenweber, of the Northern District of Illinois, died at the age of 87. He was appointed to the court on December 17, 1985 by former President Ronald Reagan.

Other

• Jun. 12, 2024: President Joe Biden announced three new judicial nominees, one each to the District of Northern California, Minnesota, and Eastern Pennsylvania.
• Jun. 13, 2024: The Senate Finance Committee voted to advance three Biden nominees to the U.S. Tax Court to a full Senate vote.
• Jun. 13, 2024: The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance the JUDGES Act to a full Senate vote, an Act which would add 66 new judgeships across the country over the next 8 years.

Analysis

After a number of months of steadily declining vacancies, the number of federal judicial vacancies is starting to tick up again.

This is the third week in a row with no judges confirmed. That will change next week. The Senate is going to vote on a judge to the District of Columbia Superior Court, as well as nominee Mustafa Taher Kasubhai, nominee to the District of Oregon. His nomination has been stalled in the Senate for over half a year at this point.

I am not sure why Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is hesitant to schedule votes on nominees, but I think it is because of Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bob Menendez of New Jersey, both of whom cannot be relied upon to vote for judges.

The new vacancies this week do present opportunities, however. If a judge is found for the New Mexico vacancy, then the District of New Mexico will become a split court, with 6 Democrats and 6 Republicans serving.

And if a judge is found for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, then 9 out of 10 judges on that Court will be appointed by Democrats.

However, Joe Biden has nominated just 3 new judges this week—a whimper compared to the 7 nominees made some weeks ago.

I take this to mean we aren’t going to be seeing very many new nominees going forward—and I don’t think we’re going to see any nominees from red states at all with less than 5 months before the election.

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill that, if passed, would add 66 new federal judgeships across the country over the next eight years.

The first 33 would be authorized on January 20th, 2025, when the next Presidential term begins.

We’ll have to see how it does in the Senate, but as I noted, this action signals confidence that Democrats, including Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, who is the second-in-command in the Senate behind Chuck Schumer, have confidence that Joe Biden will win a second term.

After all, I don’t think Democrats want to hand Donald Trump 33 new judgeships!

Finally, one thing of note. The New Mexico judge taking senior status, Judge William Paul Johnson, is taking senior status…but only after the next inauguration.

Why is this important? Well, those with even a passing interest in American constitutional law will recall the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison.

In that case, President John Adams had just lost the 1800 election to Thomas Jefferson, and the anti-Jeffersonian politicians decided to create a bunch of judgeships at the last moment.

Adams appointed all these judges the day before Jefferson was to take power. However, to become a judge, you must receive an official judicial commission.

The next day, Jefferson decided simply…not to deliver the commissions to the appointed judges.

The judges appointed by Adams decided to sue for their commissions, and the Supreme Court decided in 1803 that they deserved their commissions, but the Court could not force Jefferson to deliver them.

What I’m saying is, what happens if Biden appoints a successor to Judge Paulson, Donald Trump wins, and then when Judge Paulson takes senior status on January 24th, 2025, Trump refuses to hand over the commission to the new judge?

It will be amusing to see a 221-year-old court case being resurrected as precedent.

SIGN-OFF

That’s it for this week’s The Judiciary at Noon. This has been Anthony Myrlados. I’ll see you next noon and until then I wish you all an enjoyable weekend.