The Enlightenment

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 18 to 24, 2024.

Vacancies

• Oct. 21, 2024: Chief Judge Grant Murray Snow of the District of Arizona assumed senior status, opening up a vacancy on the court.

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

Retirements, Deaths, and Resignations

• Oct. 22, 2024: Senior Judge Philip Steven Gutierrez, a Bush appointee, retired from service as a judge of the Central District of California.

Other

Chief Judges

• Oct. 21, 2024: Judge Grant Murray Snow, a Bush appointee, stepped down as Chief Judge of the District of Arizona and assumed senior status. He is succeeded as Chief Judge by Judge Jennifer Guerin Zipps, an Obama appointee.

Nominations

• Oct. 23, 2024: President Biden nominated two judges to district courts, one to the Southern District of California and another to the Central District of California.

Analysis

The long awaited final round of nominations by outgoing President Joseph Robinette Biden was finally announced on Wednesday. As I saw it, the announcement was less of a triumphant final push to reshape the judiciary and more of a whimper.

There are five seats that are realistically open to nominations at this moment. Biden left three of them open. One of those seats was a circuit court seat for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The judge for that seat sits in Wilmington, Biden’s home state, no less.

Considering the large number of appeals judges that Biden’s predecessor Trump appointed, and the fact that rulings by circuit judges are typically the most applicable law in any given area, and that the Third Circuit is on the verge of gaining a Democratic majority, and that the appointment of a single circuit judge means you are appointing over 0.5% of the entire federal appellate judiciary in the United States, and that this vacancy has been known since May of this year…

This was a huge blunder by Democrats. There is also the strange case of Rebecca Suzanne Kanter, nominated to the Southern District of California but who never got a hearing, not being replaced after 8 months of a stalled nomination, but district judges simply do not compare to circuit judges.

So this is it. We should expect this to be the final batch of nominees by President Biden. If there are additional nominees, it will be a fluke; I don’t expect such hypothetical late nominees to be confirmed, anyways due to Senate technicalities, norms, and procedures.

I know you have been tingling with anticipation to see what is to come in the ensuing Senate session. There is not much longer to wait. The Senate returns on November 12th, in a little over three weeks.

As the polls tighten, and the presidency of America and the future of America itself hangs in the balance, Senate Democrats are no doubt adjusting their strategy for when they return after Election Day, no matter the outcome of the election.

Still no commissions for a number of judges. What is taking so long?

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.