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The Judiciary at Noon, #38: August 30 to September 5, 2024

Keep up-to-date on the US federal judiciary, August 30 to September 5, 2024.

Anthony Myrlados
2–3 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 for the week spanning August 30 to September 5, 2024.

Vacancies

  • Sep. 1, 2024: Glenn Thomas Suddaby of the Northern District of New York assumed senior status, opening up a vacancy in the court.

70 vacancies remain on the federal judiciary, a number unchanged from a week ago.

Retirements, Deaths, and Resignations

  • Aug. 30, 2024: Sylvia H. Rambo, a senior judge of the Middle District of Pennsylvania, retired at the age of 88. She is a Carter appointee.
  • Aug. 31, 2024: Senior Judge Daniel Anthony Manion of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, a Reagan appointee, died at the age of 82.

Other

Chief Judges

  • Sep. 5, 2024: Judge Thomas Edward Johnston, a Bush appointee, stepped down as Chief Judge of the Southern District of West Virginia. He is succeeded as Chief Judge by Judge Frank William Volk, a Trump appointee.

Analysis

This is the last post before the Senate convenes next week. It has been a sleepy three-week-long break, but we will see more action next week.

These last four weeks have seen three judges take senior status, three new nominees, and eight judges seated, five of whom are federal judges. Next week, the Democratic Senate is slated to confirm Adam B. Abelson to the District of Maryland and Jeanette Vargas to the Southern District of New York.

These two confirmations will begin the arduous journey of confirming the almost forty federal judicial nominees available for confirmation to the Democrats. They have less than nine weeks before the election to make their mark, and I’ll be here to cover the journey in detail along the way.

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.

One response to “The Judiciary at Noon, #38: August 30 to September 5, 2024”

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    You have almost made it and bypassed a five weeks of inactivity of the Senate – Congratulations – and six-and a half more is upcoming after the three weeks session starting next week.

    Anyway, the vacancy of Glenn Suddaby at the Northern District of New York should be prioritized in filling immediately after nominee Elizabeth C. Coombe will be voted ouf the Senate Judiciary Committee. I know she first needs to have a hearing before that, but being more focused on the stability to the courts than on purely strategical and tactical games. Hence my priority list looks a little different for the next three weeks, I have no preference at the circuit court nominees, as they are except the vacancy at the Third Circuit are all still in office, so there is no immediate hurry to fill them, though one confirmation every two months like in this year is too slow. From the district courts who are eligibly for a floor vote, I would take the three nominees from the Eastern District of California and the one of the District of Vermont, because they are urgently needed on this posts, and at least one or two nominees for the District of Columbia Superior Court. Later the vacancy at the Eastern District of Wisconsin and the two ones at the Northern District of New York, so we are back on the subject.

    The court has a very old bench, beside Anne Nardacci, who filled the vacancy of the late Gary L. Sharpe in 2022 after six and a half years, the youngest of the actually four active judges is 66 years old, half of them eligible for retirement, and beside Suddaby three more senior judges at the age of 86, 85 and 84 years, together with the still active 87-years-old David Hurd, it should be expected, that the vast majority of them if not all won’t be able to hear cases for many more years, while the probable replacement of Hurd, Anthony Brindisi, is not likely of sailing through.

    So, as we have lots of important legislative action, we may not see that much progress on judges we wish, but I think the majority leader is trying a mix of what I said, vacancies who are urgent to fill, some who are waiting for confirmation for a long time, circuit judges and the ones from Illinois.

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