The Judiciary at Noon, #43: October 4 to October 10, 2024

Keep up-to-date on the US federal judiciary, October 4 to 10, 2024.

October 11, 2024

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 October 4 to 10, 2024.

Vacancies

Oct. 8, 2024: Chief Judge Frank Dennis Saylor IV of the District of Massachusetts announced he would be taking senior status on July 31, 2025.
Oct. 9, 2024: Judge Leslie Emi Kobayashi of the District of Hawaii assumed senior status.

67 vacancies remain on the federal judiciary, an increase from 66 a week ago.

Retirements, Deaths, and Resignations

Oct. 4, 2024: Senior Judge Morrison Cohen England Jr., a Bush appointee, retired from service as a Senior Judge of the Eastern District of California.
Oct. 5, 2024: Senior Judge John Corbett O’Meara of the Eastern District of Michigan died at the age of 90. He had been appointed by President Clinton.
Oct. 6, 2024: Senior Judge Alan Neil Bloch of the Western District of Pennsylvania died at the age of 92. He had been appointed by President Carter.
Oct. 10, 2024: Senior Judge Joyce Hens Green of the District Court for the District of Columbia died at the age of 95. She had been appointed by President Carter.

Analysis

My, my, my! We are still getting new vacancies this late into an election year. I didn’t expect new vacancies to stop appearing, but at such a pace? It’s surprising. I had guessed there would be 10 to 20 new vacancies in 2024, and it seems we are going to be closer to the 20 end of the range than the 10.

The planned vacancy of Chief Judge Saylor means the District of Massachusetts will trend further liberal. Just one out of the thirteen judgeships on the court will be held by a Republican, and Saylor’s taking senior status will lead to an Obama appointee, Judge Denise J. Casper, becoming the new Chief Judge.

Still no commissions for some of the last judges appointed.

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, #43: October 4 to October 10, 2024”

Anonymous

October 12, 2024 at 4:42 am

Some judges, especially at the district courts are going at the earliest possible date, no matter of majority in the senate or who is POTUS. To give notice one year before is fair, surely there are states like Missouri or North Carolina, where nothing happens to replace them.

In the case of Massachusetts a replacement might depend on the factors, who is moving inside the White House, who has the majority in the Senate, and the blue slip issue (like all others, too), but here I won’t rule out, that he remains open for a very long time, as it was last time. The workload in Boston is not that high than in the southern states, so there is no imminent pressure on the homestate senators, but that’s also an old court, where the majority of judges have been born in the early 1960’s, we have each four who are under sixty years old, and over seventy years old, so unvoluntary exists are possible here, too.

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