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The Judiciary at Noon, #32: July 19 to 25, 2024

Keep up-to-date on the US federal judiciary, July 19 to 25, 2024.

Anthony Myrlados
2–4 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

Jul. 25, 2024: Kashi Way was confirmed to the United States Tax Court by a vote of 79 – 16.

Vacancies

Jul. 22, 2024: Glenn Thomas Suddaby of the Northern District of New York, a Bush appointee, announced he would be taking senior status on September 1st, 2024. He notified the US Courts of the vacancy on July 11th, but July 22nd is the first date it appeared on the website.

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

Retirements, Deaths, and Resignations

Jul. 25, 2024: Senior Judge Timothy Spafard Hillman of the District of Massachusetts, an Obama appointee, retired.

Other

Jul. 20, 2024: Judge Geoffrey William Crawford stepped down as Chief Judge of the District of Vermont. He was succeeded as Chief Judge by Judge Christina Clair Reiss on Jul. 21.

Jul. 25, 2024: The Senate Judiciary Committee cancelled its planned Executive Business Meeting where it would have voted on whether to advance seven nominees to the judiciary.

Jul. 25, 2024: The Senate Finance Committee advanced three nominees to the United States Tax Court to a full Senate vote.

Analysis

Since my last post, President Biden is no longer running for President, and the Democratic Party has quickly coalesced around Vice President Kamala Harris as its new party leader.

I mentioned last week that Trump’s pick of Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio means that Vance will not be present to vote on judicial nominees at least until the November election, giving Democrats an edge.

However, with Kamala Harris also now busy on the campaign trail, this edge has been blunted somewhat. Harris as VP casts tie-breaking votes in the Senate, and her absence as she campaigns means there won’t be anyone to break a tie in the event the vote on a judicial nominee is tied.

Furthermore, it seems the headwind I predicted Democrats would gain from New Jersey Democrat Senator Bob Menendez being convicted of corruption last week may not be materializing. Senator Menendez was not present at a single vote this week, for judicial nominee or otherwise.

I don’t know if this will be a continuing trend. Menendez may be busy appealing his trial verdict. Or he may simply not care. He isn’t resigning until August 20th; this may just be a rogue Senator dilly-dallying, unconcerned with official Democratic business.

Will Democrats put up with Menendez? Or will they formally expel him? Expelling him (an action many Democrats support) can finally get a reliable Democratic vote back into the Senate, but will take precious time. Republicans may not go along with the plan, either.

At any rate, Democrats are going to have to step on the gas, because July is on schedule to conclude with just 3 judges confirmed, only 1 of which which can actually interpret federal law.

Even if Democrats confirm their nominee to the District of Maine next week as planned, the number of federal vacancies refuses to go down, all while the 2024 election looms closer and closer.

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.

6 responses to “The Judiciary at Noon, #32: July 19 to 25, 2024”

  1. donaldsilberger Avatar
    donaldsilberger

    Anthony, I am grateful for the continual droplets of useful information on an important area to which I have for far too long failed to give the attention it merits. Your blog would be even more valuable to this ancient reader if you included, with each person proposed for or entering or leaving a judgeship, information about that person’s values, political affiliation, and source of appointment.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Anthony Myrlados Avatar
      Anthony Myrlados

      Hello donaldsilberger, thank you for the kind words. I do not think I can provide information on the people leaving, outside of their nominating president. However, if you would like extensive information on the values, political affiliation, and source of appointment of current judicial candidates, I would like to direct you to another blog on this website called “The Vetting Room”. The blog writers are lawyers who create an extensive write-up for each individual nominee to the federal judiciary, including the cases that these judges have ruled on.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
      1. Anthony Myrlados Avatar
        Anthony Myrlados

        You can find the blog by clicking this link: https://vettingroom.org/

        Like

  2. donaldsilberger Avatar
    donaldsilberger

    Thanks.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Geoffrey Crawford had to resign, because he became 70 years old, that day, meaning Christina Reiss, who was already chief from 2010 – 2017, had to start another term. I think it should be made sure, that never a judge with a higher age should be appointed junior to another one. This should be done at district courts with not smaller than three judges. She has now to serve until the hopefully new appointed judge Mary Kay Lanthier has been at least one year at the court. The same situation is at the Middle District of North Carolina, where Chief Judge Catherine Eagles will go senior, Judges Thomas D. Schroeder and William Osteen jr. have already serves as CJ, but not for a full term, Schroeder has already turned 65, and is too old now, while Judge Loretta Copeland Biggs, who has not served as CJ, is too old, too. I think Osteen, will start a second term.

    Liked by 1 person

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  4. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Just wanted to add, the Senate Committee for Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs had an Executive Business Meeting at Jul 24, 2024, but not voted out the five nominees for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, the meeting at the previous week was postponed (maybe the same reason as at the Senate Judiciary Committee), so they are also not forwarded to the Senate Floor.
    Your last two paragraphs are correct, but goes back at least until May, because the Democrats have not the votes to confirm those who are waiting for a floor vote, so they started to confirm nominees for future openings. That’s not wrong, but now, the number of really unfilled seats started to rise again.
    In May, there were four district judges were leaving the bench, but just one, confirmed in March, filled a open seat (Northern District of California).
    In June, two confirmed in May filled open seats (South Dakota) , while one opened without nominee (South Carolina) and a further one confirmed in May filled a seat who went open in June (Arizona)
    For July, I see six judges leaving the bench, from whom two have been confirmed in May (Western District of Virginia & Arizona), three others with no nominee (Alaska, Eastern District of Missouri and Southern District of Indiana), so the number of open seats will grow anyway, I won’t go on with the months to come, before we definitely know the final numbers next week. And I have not mentioned the circuit court posts, who are not open yet, as well as the local DC Courts and the Tax Court. Seems hard to believe or at least very tough to get all of them filled in the last five weeks of the year, as I expect in September they will spent most time for a new funding bill.
    They surely had problems with getting a majority due to absences of Fetterman, Feinstein etc., but now time is a critical factor, as well as the other factors you mentioned above.

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