The Enlightenment

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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 November 1 to 7, 2024.

Vacancies

• Nov. 2, 2024: Chief Judge Timothy J. Corrigan of the Middle District of Florida 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

No judges retired, died, or resigned for the week of November 1 to 4, 2024.

Other

Judges seated

• Nov. 4, 2024: Byron Browning Conway is seated as a judge of the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
• Nov. 6, 2024: Jeannette Anne Vargas is seated as a judge of the Southern District of New York.
• Nov. 7, 2024: Michelle Williams Court is seated as a judge of the Central District of California.

Chief Judges

• Nov. 3, 2024: Judge Marcia Morales Howard, a Bush appointee, became Chief Judge of the Middle District of Florida. She succeeds Judge Timothy Corrigan, a Bush appointee, as Chief Judge.
• Nov. 4, 2024: Judge Halil Suleyman Ozerden, a Bush appointee, became Chief Judge of the Southern District of Mississippi. He succeeds Judge Daniel Porter Jordan III, a Bush appointee, as Chief Judge.

Analysis

As I’m sure you are well aware by now, Donald Trump has won the 2024 presidential election and will succeed Joe Biden as President of the United States. Personally, I am very worried about what this means for the future of the country. I believe we are headed in the wrong direction, with further concentration of wealth in the hands of the wealthy in this country, further erosion of democracy, and further ethnic and racial strife to be expected in the future of this country. This is a very bleak situation.

What is also a bleak situation is any hopes Democrats may have had of shifting the federal judiciary in a liberal direction. With one election, any hope that Democrats may have had of bringing the federal judiciary back from its sudden right-wing lurch during the first Trump presidency has been dashed to pieces.

The Biden presidency saw over two hundred liberal-leaning judges appointed. But this liberal shift only really cancelled out some of the effect of the Trump presidency. A Harris presidency was entirely necessary to go beyond Trump and begin remaking federal courts in Democrats’ favor.

In particular, there is a large discrepancy between the amount of lower-court and higher-court judges that Biden and Trump got to appoint. In other words, while Biden has gotten a chance to appoint more district court judges, Trump was able to appoint more circuit judges, and circuit judges are far more powerful than district courts in the realm of law.

And of course, Trump got to pick more Supreme Court Justices. He appointed three, a third of the Court, and one of those three Justices replaced a liberal, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Biden only got to pick one.

And now, there is widespread speculation that either or both Samuel Alito or Clarence Thomas, the two most conservative members of the Court, will retire under a second Trump presidency and be replaced by conservatives. Trump could end up having five of his Justices on the Supreme Court by the end of his second term.

Armed with a newfound Senate majority of 53 Republicans as of me writing this, the Trump presidency will likely see the 4th Circuit and Federal Circuit go red. The Missouri district courts will go red, as will the ones in Arkansas and the Eastern District of Louisiana. The chance to move courts in Texas, North Carolina, and Alaska in a liberal direction are gone.

With that being said, Trump may not have as easy a time confirming judges as he did in his first term. In 2017, Trump inherited 105 vacancies from the Obama presidency following Republican obstructionism. The Democrats have become wiser on the federal judges, and so there are currently only 67 vacancies in the federal judiciary.

Of these, 26 have nominees that may yet be confirmed before the end of Biden’s presidency, bringing the number of vacancies down to 41. One nominee might finally show up after a long absence (Rebecca Suzanne Kanter, nominated to the Southern District of California back in February of this year). The number is down to 40.

One nominee failed to be reported out of committee (Sarah Netburn, nominated to the Southern District of New York). She may get a second vote, bringing the total number of vacancies to 39. And of those vacancies, two are in a state with two Democratic Senators, meaning the number of vacancies Trump can inherit can go as low as 37.

Now, the size of vacancies that Trump will inherit will depend on how aggressively Democrats confirm judges in the remaining weeks of the Biden presidency. The Senate will finally reconvene next week on November 12, and Senate Democrats will fire off their opening salvo by confirming a nominee to the Tax Court and two district court nominees.

Where it goes from there, I know not. I mentioned before that in a cruel twist of irony, Harris losing was the best scenario for confirming judges for Democrats, because now she can return to the Senate to cast tie-breaking votes and Vice President-elect J. D. Vance will likely be absent from the Senate to prepare for his upcoming vice presidency.

It’s the last good chance that Democrats will have to confirm judges, and then that’s it for who knows how long. These judges may be our only defense against whatever Trump is scheming to bring. Democrats failed to stop Trump. They owe it to us to fill every vacancy they can to stop the harm.

SIGN-OFF

That’s it for this week’s The Judiciary at Noon. This has been Anthony Myrlados.