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The Judiciary at Noon, #29: June 28 to July 4, 2024

Keep up-to-date on the US federal judiciary, June 28 to July 4, 2024.

Anthony Myrlados
3–4 minutes

Image courtesy of Sora Shimazaki/Pexels

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 in the previous week.

Vacancies

  • Jun. 30, 2024: Judge Andrew Scott Hanan of the Southern District of Texas, a Bush appointee, announced he would be taking senior status on Jan. 2, 2025. (Although he had notified the U.S. Courts Agency of his plan on June 17, this vacancy was only showed up on the website for the first time on June 30th.)
  • Jul. 1, 2024: Judge Jane Elizabeth Magnus-Stinson of the Southern District of Indiana, an Obama appointee, assumed senior status.
  • Jul. 1, 2024: Judge James Alan Soto of the District of Arizona, an Obama appointee, assumed senior status.
  • Jul. 3, 2024: Judge Joshua Michael Kindred of the District of Alaska, a Trump appointee, announced his intent to resign on July 8, 2024.
  • Jul. 4, 2024: Chief Judge Michael Francis Urbanski of the Western District of Virginia, an Obama appointee, assumed senior status and stepped down as Chief Judge of the court.

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

Retirements, Deaths, and Resignation

No judges retired, died, or resigned for the week spanning June 28 to July 4, 2024.

Other

Judges Seated

  • Jul. 2, 2024: Angela M. Martinez assumed her duties as a judge of the District of Arizona.

Nominations

  • Jul. 3, 2024: President Joe Biden announced the nomination of four new judges to the federal judiciary: one judge to the Fourth Circuit and one judge each to the Eastern District of Wisconsin, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the Central District of Illinois.

Chief Judgeships

  • Jul. 4, 2024: Judge Elizabeth Kay Dillon, an Obama appointee, becomes the Chief Judge of the Western District of Virginia.

Analysis

There is a lot of political news going on right now in the U.S. The judges nominated on July 3rd may possibly be the last batch of judges appointed by President Joe Biden this year.

Very interesting new vacancy announced on July 3rd: that of Joshua Kindred of the District of Alaska. He will be the very first judge appointed by Donald Trump to resign, and after just 4 years as a judge.

Such a short tenure for a federal judge is practically unheard of. It is likely for a peculiar reason; many younger lawyers like Kindred (who is 46 or 47) decline being nominated to the bench because the salaries for federal judges, though very high, pale in comparison to those earned in private practice!

This leaves only one active judge left in the District of Alaska. Might this put pressure on the two Republican senators from Alaska to approve a Democratic nominee? Perhaps. Senator Lisa Murkowski is understood to be more moderate. But time is not on the Democrats’ side.

If there is a time to panic, the time is now. Democratic Senator Bob Menendez is still on trial for corruption, and jurors will likely reach a decision only by the end of next week. In other words, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has only 49 votes in favor of any judge—a losing number.

39 out of 74 vacancies still do not have a nominee. Most of those (31) are in states with at least one Republican Senator, but it’s still a lot of vacancies that might be left to a potential Republican successor. And we may see up to 10 more vacancies before the end of the year.

I still recall how Democrats came within a percentage point of flipping Wisconsin’s Senate seat in 2022. They almost won both of North Carolina’s seats in 2020 and 2022 as well. Had that occurred, Democrats would be sitting on a 54-46 majority in the Senate and judges would be sailing through.

Winning elections: it matters, folks.

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.

3 responses to “The Judiciary at Noon, #29: June 28 to July 4, 2024”

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Thank you for the explanation, it’s logical, I haven’t supposed, you know more that everybody else outside the Democratic caucus.

    I understand your feeling about elevations and agree with it mostly, on the other hand you have judges, who got merits and therefore more responsibility, higher salary, and those prospects should motivate you to do your best to achieve more. Otherwise a district court judge has achieved everything with a lifetime appointment. He or she shouldn’t think in that way, but some do so.

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  2. Avatar
    Anonymous

    You are completely right with you comment about the loosing number – have you subtracted Sinema and Machchin to get 49? – this situation is frustrating, as now no open seats could be filled, there were just some changes of nominees, who have already been confirmed some months ago. That also necessary, for those courts, who are long waiting for reinforcement, it’s simply bad.

    I also noticed, that three of the seven district nominees (Sarah Russell, Sparkle Sooknanan and Rebecca Pennell), who are waiting for confirmations are the replacement for elevations to the circuit courts (Sarah Merriam, Florence Pan and Salvador Mendoza), who all have already been executed in fall/winter 2022. There have been failed candidates for Pan (Todd Edelman) and Mendoza (Charnell Bjelkengren) before, but replacements for elevation are always lasting pretty long.

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    1. Anthony Myrlados Avatar
      Anthony Myrlados

      Thanks for the comment. Here’s how I get to the 49 number. I take a Democrat judge and assume that all Democrats vote for and all Republicans against, a 51 – 49 vote. However, Senator Manchin will vote against any judge that has no Republican vote, meaning it would be 50 – 50. However, since Democrat Bob Menendez is out of the Senate because of his corruption trial, he can’t vote, meaning the vote would be 49 – 50, a failed vote. It is very frustrating, indeed.

      I don’t know why district judges are elevated at all. Each elevation artificially creates a new vacancy that you now have to fill. Take Judge Maldonado. She was just elevated to the 7th Circuit, creating a vacancy in the Northern District of Illinois. It’s unnecessary extra work. If I were in charge I wouldn’t elevate any judges, just pick people who aren’t already judges for circuit courts.

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