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 31 to February 6, 2025.

Vacancies

• Feb. 1, 2025: Chief Judge Danny Clyde Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky assumed senior status, opening up a vacancy on the court.
• Feb. 5, 2025: Chief Judge Timothy Carroll Batten Sr. of the Northern District of Georgia announced he would be retiring on May 23, 2025, opening up a vacancy on the court.

54 vacancies remain on the federal judiciary, an increase from 53 a week ago.

Retirements, Deaths, and Resignations

No judges died, retired, or resigned for the week spanning January 31 to February 6, 2025.

Other

Chief Judges

Feb. 1, 2025: Judge David Louis Bunning, a Bush appointee, becomes the Chief Judge of the Eastern District of Kentucky. He is succeeding Judge Danny C. Reeves, a Bush appointee, as Chief Judge.

Analysis

I said three weeks ago that we can expect a flood of new vacancies with the new Trump administration. I was wrong.

As opposed to the “wave” of conservative judges that I anticipated retiring, it appears it has been more of a trickle.

As I said in last week’s post, I took a dive into the Internet Archive to see how many vacancies opened up in the first few weeks after Biden’s inauguration. In the first two weeks, there were twelve. Almost three weeks after Trump’s second inauguration, just six vacancies have emerged.

This may be because there just aren’t that many judges eligible for senior status anymore. Obama, Trump, and Biden all appointed large chunks of the federal judiciary. Coupled with a trend towards appointing younger judges, there simply aren’t that many judgeships left to appoint.

There are just 85 district judges left in active service who have been appointed by Reagan, H.W. Bush, or Bush. The number of such circuit judges is 35. Unless a serious number of Democratic judges decide to retire (which, given the increasing politicization of the judiciary, is highly unlikely), Trump is going to have great difficulty appointing anywhere close to the amount of judges that he did in his first term.

Meanwhile, Trump’s early presidential actions continue to face hurdles in the court system. It was recently uncovered that associates of Elon Musk had gained access to Department of Treasury servers. That action was blocked in court.

Trump offered a “buyout” for federal workers to receive pay if they resigned. A Massachusetts judge delayed that decision until Monday for further arguments. A second judge, and the first one appointed by Biden (Judge Deborah Boardman), issued a second national injunction against Trump’s birthright citizenship order.

In my entry three weeks ago, I pondered if Trump would appeal the first injunction by Seattle-based Senior Judge John Coughenour. It appears he is in fact appealing the Judge’s decision to the 9th Circuit. We will have to see how the Circuit rules, but I am highly skeptical it will rule in Trump’s favor.

SIGN-OFF

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