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 May 3 to 9, 2024.

Vacancies

• May 6, 2024: Jon David Levy, of the District of Maine, took senior status. He was appointed by President Barack Obama.
• May 7, 2024: Kent Amos Jordan, of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, announced he would be retiring on January 15th, 2025. He was appointed by President George W. Bush.

74 vacancies remain on the federal judiciary, up from 73 a week ago.

Retirements, Deaths, and Resignations

No retirements, deaths, or resignations occurred on the federal judiciary for the week of May 3 to 9, 2024.

Other

• May 5, 2024: Raymond Stanley Baker Jr., a Trump appointee, became Chief Judge of the Southern District of Georgia. He is succeeding Judge James Randall Hall, a George W. Bush appointee, as Chief Judge.
• May 8, 2024: President Joe Biden announced four new nominees to the district and appellate courts.
• May 9, 2024: The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance four judicial nominees to a full vote in the Senate.
• May 9, 2024: President Joe Biden announced three new nominees to the United States Tax Court.

Analysis

The news that a circuit judge is retiring is good news for Democrats, who can appoint a new judge in their place. There are now eight vacancies on the appellate courts, meaning if Biden appoints them all he’ll have appointed 49 circuit judges, a number approaching Trump’s 54 appointed judges.

That makes the Senate’s inaction all the more puzzling. With the Senate Judiciary Committee advancing another four nominees to the Senate, the Senate now has a staggering 18 judges they can vote on at any time.

If pending nominees are favorably reviewed and sent to the Senate as well, the number will further swell to 37 nominees. I wrote some weeks ago that Biden needs to announce new nominees to keep pace with the Senate; now it seems the reverse is true.

But it appears the Senate is planning on returning to its schedule of confirming judges. The Senate has been swamped the last two weeks passing several large pieces of legislation, but a motion has been filed to consider two judicial nominees for a cloture vote sometime next week, likely Wednesday.

One of these two is Seth Robert Aframe, nominee to a vacancy in the First Circuit Court of Appeals. His nomination has been stalled since October of last year, primarily due to Republican opposition and an unspectacular presentation before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Aframe is one of a number of “holdovers”, nominees who have been stuck in limbo for long periods of time due to what I suspect is unannounced Democratic opposition. I will be paying attention to the Aframe vote to see just how united the Democratic coalition is behind the President’s nominees.

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.