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 and fun information about the United States judiciary at the very end. All information spans the previous week.

Confirmations

Two new judges were confirmed this week:

• January 9th: John Andrew Kazen was appointed to the Southern District of Texas, a court that covers the southern coast of Texas and which includes cities like Houston, Galveston, Laredo, and Corpus Christi.
• January 10th: Shane Kato Crews was appointed to the District of Colorado.

The Southern District of Texas is comfortably conservative, with 19 out of 29 judges appointed by Republican presidents. Kazen will be the 10th judge nominated by a Democratic president to serve on the court.

Crews’ nomination will help solidify the Colorado District Court’s newfound Democratic tilt. When Joe Biden assumed the presidency, a majority of the court’s judges were appointed by Republicans; with the confirmation of Crews, the partisan split of the court is now 9 to 5, Democrat to Republican.

Vacancies

On January 5th, 2024, Judge James A. Wynn, Jr. of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals announced he would take senior status on a date as of yet undecided. There are now 90 vacancies on the federal judiciary, down from 91 a week ago.

Retirements, deaths, and resignations

There have been no new retirements, deaths, or resignations from the federal judiciary for the week of January 5th to 11th, 2024.

Other

Three judges who were nominated by President Biden last year have since asked the President to withdraw their nominations, and will no longer be considered. These judges are:

• Charnelle Bjelkengren, for the Eastern District of Washington;
• Marian Gaston, for the Southern District of California;
• Colleen Holland, for the Western District of New York.

Two judges who were nominated by Biden last year have not had their nominations resubmitted. These are:

• Scott Colom, for the Northern District of Mississippi;
• Todd Edelman, for the District Court of the District of Columbia.

Analysis

If the Democrats are trying to appoint as many federal judges as possible, they’ve had a sloppy start to the New Year. A fifth of Biden’s nominees from last year are no longer in consideration, there is just one judge left available to be considered by the Senate, and worst of all, yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee’s meeting was abruptly cancelled, pumping the brakes on any new judges being considered.

I outline the judicial nomination process here.

Having viewed live Senate webcasts in writing this series (Bleh!), I’ve discovered just how slow the Senate is. This last week, the Senate took seven votes in four days. Compare that to the House of Representatives, which, despite have more than four times the number of members, has taken eight votes in three days.

This is because the Senate doesn’t have electronic voting. To vote, Senators physically come in, one by one, to indicate support or disapproval for a bill. Meanwhile, House members have secure voice identification cards which they can use to vote from anywhere in the world.

I think the biggest take-away from watching judicial proceedings like a hawk this week is not so much the judges, but the simple awe at the glacial pace with which the United States Senate moves. What’s worse is I’m not entirely sure our Senators care.

BONUS: What is the blue-slip process?

The blue-slip process is a Senate tradition involving the federal judiciary. Any federal judicial nominee must obtain approval from both Senators of the state from which the judicial nominee originates. It is so called because Senators are given actual blue slips of paper that they must then return with their opinion.

Example: if I am a judicial nominee residing in Montana, and I receive a nomination to the federal bench, I need the approval of both Montana senators, Republican Steve Daines and Democrat Jon Tester.

Since 2018, the blue-slip process has been waived for circuit judges. District judges are still subject to the rule, and if they are disapproved of by one of their home state Senators, or if one of their home state Senators does not return their blue slip, their nomination is not advanced.

The purported purpose of the blue slip is to strengthen bipartisanship, prevent the appointment of partisan judges, and encourage Presidential consultation with Senators about judicial nominees. However, the blue-slip process is also used to stall the judicial nominations process.

Also, it hasn’t always been followed. Multiple judges under the Trump administration were advanced and confirmed over the disapproval of various Democrat Senators.

The blue-slip process is not a formal Senate rule, but rather a tradition dating to 1917 and may be amended at any moment at the discretion of the Chairperson of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Seeing the slowing pace of judicial confirmations, Senate Democrats have faced increased pressure to ditch the seemingly self-inflicted wound of the blue slip altogether.