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 new confirmations to the federal judiciary, deaths, resignations, or retirements from the courts, any new vacancies that have occurred, and the shifting partisan balance of the courts. It includes analysis and fun information about the United States judiciary at the very end. All information spans the previous week, except for this entry, which spans the previous 8 days.

Confirmations

Four judges have been confirmed to the federal judiciary, all of them for the district courts. Two were appointed to Louisiana, and two to Oklahoma.

• December 14th: Jerry Edwards, Jr. was appointed to be a judge for the Western District of Louisiana, a district hearing cases from two-thirds of Louisiana and which includes cities like Shreveport and Lafayette.
• The same day, Brandon Scott Long was appointed to the Eastern District of Louisiana, hearing cases out of New Orleans.
• December 19th: Sara Elizabeth Hill and John David Russell were appointed judges for the Northern District of Oklahoma, with its courthouse in Tulsa. Hill is set to become the first ever female Native American to serve as a federal judge in Oklahoma.

The Western District of Louisiana is heavily Republican, and Edwards’ confirmation won’t change that. With his confirmation, just 4 out of 12 judges on the Court have been appointed by Democrats, with the other 8 having been appointed by Republicans.

Long, meanwhile, was confirmed to a comfortably Democratic district. He will become the 11th Democrat-appointed judge in a court made up of 16 judges.

The Northern District of Oklahoma is a different matter. With the appointment of Hill and Russell, the court is now evenly split between Republican and Democrat judges, 4 to 4.

Vacancies

No new vacancies have occurred in the week of December 14th to December 21st. 89 vacancies remain on the federal judiciary, down from 93 a week ago.

Deaths, retirements, and resignations

No judges have died, retired, or resigned for the week of December 14th to December 21st.

Analysis

With the confirmation of John David Russell, President Biden has nominated his 166th judge to the federal judiciary, a near-record pace. However, the 7 judges confirmed this December is a slump from the 11 judges confirmed last November. 89 vacancies still loom large, a number that will no doubt grow through next year.

The United States Senate confirms all judicial nominees, and Democrats will likely lose control of the Senate in next year’s elections. Even if Democrats retain the Senate, President Biden’s own re-election is uncertain. Biden and the Democrats will have to hasten the pace of judicial appointments if they want to maximize their impact on the federal judiciary.

BONUS: What is the federal judiciary?

The federal judiciary is a system of courts and judges covering the entire United States that resolves legal disputes over the Constitution, the founding legal document of the US. The lowest level of the federal judiciary is the District Court. There are 94 of these courts covering the 50 states and territories of the US (some states have more than one court).

Decisions made in a district court can be appealed to a Circuit Court. The 94 District Courts are grouped into one of thirteen higher-tier courts. Any decision made there can be appealed to the Supreme Court, the most famous court. They are a 9-member panel whose decision on legal issues is final.

The federal judiciary has the final say on whether laws passed in states or Congress can be allowed and so are critical in shaping the policy of the United States. The ideology of the federal judiciary has a strong impact on a variety of issues, ranging from taxation, to gay rights, to abortion, and so forth.

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 a happy holidays!