The Judiciary at Noon, #40: September 13 to 19, 2024

Keep up-to-date on the US federal judiciary, September 13 to September 19, 2024.

September 20, 2024

4–6 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

Sep. 16, 2024: Kevin Gafford Ritz was confirmed as a circuit judge for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, 48 – 46.
Sep. 17, 2024: Mary Kay Costello was confirmed as a district judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 52 – 41.
Sep. 18, 2024: Michelle Williams Court was confirmed as district judge for the Central District of California, 49 – 44.

Vacancies

Sep. 16, 2024: Judge Julia Smith Gibbons of the Sixth Circuit assumed senior status upon the confirmation of Kevin Ritz.
Sep. 17, 2024: Chief Judge Kimberly Jo Mueller of the Eastern District of California assumed senior status. She is succeeded as an active judge by Judge Dena Michaela Coggins.
Sep. 18, 2024: Judge Daniel Dale Crabtree of the District of Kansas announced he would be taking senior status on August 11, 2025. Although his announcement is officially listed as having taken place on August 19, 2024, this is the first time the announcement was listed on the United States Courts website.
September 18, 2024: Judge Lance Michael Africk of the Eastern District of Louisiana announced he would be taking senior status on October 1st, 2024.
September 19, 2024: Judge Lee Hyman Rosenthal of the Southern District of Texas announced she would be taking senior status on December 1, 2024.

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

Retirements, Deaths, and Resignations

No federal judges died, retired, or resigned in the week spanning September 13 to 19, 2024.

Other

Judges Seated

Sep. 16, 2024: Laura Margarete Provinzino was seated as a judge of the District of Minnesota.
Sep. 18, 2024: Dena M. Coggins was seated as a judge of the Eastern District of California.
Sep. 19, 2024: Mary Kay Costello was seated as a judge of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Sep. 19, 2024: Kevin G. Ritz was seated as a judge of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Chief Judges

Sep. 17, 2024: Judge Kimberly J. Mueller, an Obama appointee, stepped down as Chief Judge of the Eastern District of California. She is succeeded as Chief Judge by Judge Troy L. Nunley, an Obama appointee.

Committee Hearings

Sep. 19, 2024: The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced four district court nominees and three marshals to a Senate vote in its Executive Business Meeting.

Analysis

With the Costello nomination, President Biden has now confirmed as many judges to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania as President Trump did, nullifying the impact that the former President may have had on the court. Biden has two more judges he can confirm to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, meaning the court may become more liberal.

With that being said, I can’t help but feel that some of the momentum from last week has now slowed down. Three judges confirmed in one week is no small feat (especially considering one of them was an appeals judge), but it was a decrease from the four judges confirmed last week.

A fourth judge was meant to be confirmed this week: Rebecca Pennell to the Eastern District of Washington. But Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stopped the scheduled vote on her nomination on Tuesday, September 17, likely due to concerns she would not be confirmed.

We instead got a vote on Rose Jenkins, nominee to the United States Tax Court. She will be confirmed next week, but honestly, having received over 75 votes in favor, I can’t help but wonder why time is being spent voting on this nominee rather than confirming her by unanimous consent or a voice vote, methods that would save hours of Senate time to be spent on other nominees.

In addition, Majority Leader Schumer did not schedule a vote on another circuit court nominee. There were some hopes by Democratic observers that this week would mirror last week, where Kevin Ritz was confirmed, but this did not come to pass.

It appears Democrats themselves are recognizing they may be in trouble on judicial nominations. Tiana Headley of Bloomberg Law reported on Wednesday that Democrats are looking to “strike a deal” with Republicans where they will get to confirm their judges after the election.

Surprisingly, we are seeing a number of vacancies pop up out of nowhere. I predicted all the way back at the start of the year that we would see between 10 and 20 additional vacancies. I’m right so far, but I was expecting to be closer to the number 10, rather than 20.

We are seeing vacancies occurring in red states and with conservative nominees. Both the Eastern District of Louisiana and Southern District of Texas are full of vacancies. Africk’s vacancy means 1/3rd of the Eastern District of Louisiana will be missing judges, and this is now the fourth vacancy in the Southern District of Texas, leading to a vacancy rate of over 20%.

I don’t expect this to pressure Republican Senators in those states to present nominees to President Biden at this very late date, but in a potential Harris administration, this may become a breaking point.

What does it mean? These vacancies at a late date. Are they signals that the judges believe Trump is going to win? Otherwise, I’d assume they’d stay on. Are they pressuring their Senators to appoint more judges? Are more judges being confirmed, convincing already-sitting judges to take senior status?

Is it all just a coincidence? Is now just the time they are choosing to take senior status? I don’t know.

P.S.: I’ve decided to bold the dates when things are happening. Please let me know if you think it looks good or makes this blog easier to read.

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, #40: September 13 to 19, 2024”

Anonymous

September 21, 2024 at 9:24 am

Bold is not necessary for me, but I’m fine with it, if other people find is useful.

I’m relatively sure, that Schumer also would like to confirm uncontroversial nominees for the DC Courts of the US Tax Courts by voice vote, but Republican obstructionism seems to make that at least difficult, and the number of bad faith members is more likely to grow. Not sure what can be done against it. Easy measures like keeping the Senate in session at the weekends might not have the desired effect, because the presence of one GOP senator is enough to prevent unanimous consent. And there are many Democratic senators who are also not known as busy bees. Although GOP senators are now complaing about undone legislative work like the appropriation bill and the farm bill. The next week is reserved for the CR bill, I assume, they fix it again in the last minute or stay until Sunday before the six and a half weeks break is starting again. That the working weeks often without Mondays are also not very helpful is clear.

The confirmations this week were not spectacular, Kevin Ritz is a flip and makes the homestate senators unhappy, Mary Kay Costello at the Eastern District of Pennsylvania is filling a vacancy from the first year of Biden’s term. Michelle Courts is filling a judicial emergency at the Central District of California. Both courts have a high average age on the benches, what won’t change until the end of the current presicendy, so it’s even more important to fill all those seats, as the future is uncertain.

I think the announcements are a coincidence. Daniel Crabtree gave advance warning, but for him like for Lance Africk and Lee Rosenthal it seems not to be relevant, who appoint their successors. But both Africk and Rosenthal land on the list of judicial vacancies at the following day they go senior. The Eastern District of Louisiana is also an old court, before the appointment of the two Biden nominees the youngest judge of twelve was sixty years old. Now the eldest have been gone, Feldman by death and Barber and Fallon by senior status. None of them could expect that their posts, all in states with two GOP senators, would be filled until the end of the year. We have in the moment 20 judicial emergencies, whom 16 are from Red States. So we have the two upcoming ones and another one at the Central District of California, where the Democrats can just fill five of them due to blue slips. At the Southern District of Texas there are still negotiations for one seat in McAllen between the White House and the Republican senators. Generally with an open future some of them should be filled by Red State senators, but I doubt it.

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