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 January 17 to January 23, 2025.

Vacancies

• Jan. 17, 2025: Judge Wilma Antoinette Lewis of the District of the Virgin Islands announced she would be taking senior status on February 15, 2025.
• Jan. 20, 2025: Chief Judge Danny Clyde Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky announced he would be taking senior status on February 1, 2025.
• Jan. 21, 2025: Judge James Oren Browning of the District of New Mexico announced he would be taking senior status on February 1, 2026.
• Jan. 21, 2025: Judge Gregory Kent Frizzell of the Northern District of Oklahoma announced he would be taking senior status on March 1, 2025.
• Jan. 22, 2025: Chief Judge Ronald Allen White of the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced he would be taking senior status on January 27, 2026.

52 vacancies remain on the federal judiciary, an increase from 47 a week ago.

Retirements, Deaths, and Resignations

• Jan. 17, 2025: Senior Judge Richard George Kopf of the District of Nebraska died at the age of 78. He had been an H. W. Bush appointee.
• Jan. 17, 2025: Judge Christopher Charles Conner of the Middle District of Pennsylvania retired from service at the age of 67. He was appointed by Bush.

Other

Judges Seated

• Jan. 17, 2025: Keli Marie Neary received her commission to serve as a Judge of the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Chief Judges

• Jan. 22, 2025: Judge Cynthia Ann Bashant, an Obama appointee, became the new Chief Judge of the Southern District of California. She is succeeding Judge Dana Makoto Sabraw, a Bush appointee, as Chief Judge.

Analysis

On January 17th, 2025 Keli M. Neary became the last judge nominated by former President Biden to take office. Three days later, President Trump was sworn in as the new President of the United States.

The era of the Biden presidency is over.

As Trump assumes office, we are seeing what I believe to be the beginning of a wave of announcements from Republican judges that they plan to take senior status. This typically occurs when the office of the President switches parties; judges reluctant to be replaced by ideological opposites can now be assured that a judge with a similar ideology will take their place.

Within 24 hours of Trump’s inauguration, two Bush appointees have announced plans to take senior status. Looking back, perhaps it was predictable that Judge Browning would have taken senior status; Judge Kenneth Gonzales became the Chief Judge of the District of New Mexico instead of him, even though Judge Browning is the most senior Judge on the Court, and eligible by age.

While the US Courts website has been able to document these new vacancies, there is still no mention whatsoever of the vacancies caused by Judge Valerie Caproni, Southern District of New York, or Judge Jeffrey Meyer, District of Connecticut, who took senior status on the 7th of January and who died on the 12th of January, respectively.

As Trump issues the first executive orders of his presidency, we will get to see how the federal judiciary, realigned under President Biden, will respond. While Biden did not appoint as many appeals judges as Trump (and not nearly as many Supreme Court justices), Biden appointed a hefty 187 district judges. One out of every four district judges in the entire United States was appointed by Biden, and we will see how this impacts the early Trump presidency.

It appears President Trump is already running into some judicial roadblocks. On his first day in office, the new President issued an executive order attempting to limit the scope of birthright citizenship codified in the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. However, the order was blocked just two days later—not by a Biden judge, but by a Reagan appointee.

Senior Judge John Coughenour of the Western District of Washington called the order “blatantly unconstitutional”. Judge Coughenour stated that:

I have been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented was as clear.

The 14th Amendment is unambiguous on who is eligible by birthright citizenship. It is stated in Section I that:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

We shall see how President Trump attempts to circumnavigate this obstacle to his agenda, if at all. The President may try to appeal the decision; the Western District of Washington appeals to the Ninth Circuit, which while still a liberal-majority court, became far more conservative during Trump’s first term.

However, even with the occasional story of a Trump judge rendering a decision widely regarded as legally dubious that aids the President, I don’t think Trump can rely on his conservative picks to save him. Trump judges have been known to side against the President as often as with him.

SIGN-OFF

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