Monday, August 31, 2020

September 2020 Judiciary News

Judiciary news continues to roll in.

Nominations, Hearings, Confirmations:

Trump list:  As we wait for President Trump's updated Supreme Court list, John Malcolm and Zack Smith of the Heritage Foundation and Ilya Shapiro of the Cato Institute have made recommendations for who he should add.

Future appointments:  Harsh Voruganti of the Vetting Room lists thirteen federal judges Donald Trump and Joe Biden might elevate to the Court of Appeals.  The contrast is stark.

Court packing:  The democrat party included a plank in its party platform calling for
“structural court reforms” to counter what they call Trump's “unqualified, partisan judges.”  The Biden campaign signed off on the plank.  The platform does not specify what these 'reforms' would be, but it seems likely to include court packing, adding new seats that would be filled with leftists.

Legislative filibuster:  Court packing would depend on eliminating the legislative filibuster.  Support for this has been building on the left and among senate Ds.  Joe Biden has signaled openness, but has not formally endorsed the idea.  A few senate Ds say they are opposed, though it remains to be seen whether this opposition is real.

Roe v. Wade:  Senator Josh Hawley has argued that future Supreme Court nominees should be on the record saying that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided.  Ed Whelan argues that this is a flawed test, as some liberals have acknowledged that Roe was wrongly decided and some conservative judges had not said this.  He suggests a different approach for pro-life senators.

New Nominations:
Court of Federal Claims: Zachary Somers--staffer for Senate Judiciary Committee

Senate Judiciary Committee hearings:
TBD

Confirmations:
TBD

The Federal Judiciary:

Judicial winning:  Carrie Severino of the Judicial Crisis Network is writing a series highlighting Trump's conservative judicial appointees.  The series so far includes Kyle Duncan, Amul Thapar, Ken Lee, Lisa Branch, Amy Coney Barrett, Greg Katsas, and Justin Walker.

9th Circuit:  Judge Jerome Farris passed away on July 23.  He was appointed by President Carter in 1979 and took senior status in 1995 on his 65th birthday.  He was the first black judge on the 9th Circuit.

DC Circuit:  Judge Stephen F. Williams passed away on August 7 due to the coronavirus.  He was appointed by President Reagan in 1986 and took senior status in 2001.  He was one of eight Reagan appointees to the DC Circuit.

D-ID:  Judge David Nye issued an injunction against an Idaho law declaring that women's sports not allow men.  Nye is a Trump appointee who was previously nominated by President Obama, but not confirmed.

D-ME:  Has Trump-appointed Judge Lance Walker betrayed conservatives?  This article tries to argue this, but most of the examples cited are not ideologically clear-cut.

State Supreme Courts:

States:  Harsh Voruganti argues that D governors appoint judges who are older and less involved in legal activism than R governors.

Florida:  The Florida Supreme Court ruled that Governor DeSantis' appointment of Renatha Francis to the court was not allowed by the law, since she did not have ten years of legal experience by the deadline to make the appointment.  The ruling was 5-0, with recently-appointed Justice John Couriel recused.  The suit was filed by state rep Geraldine Thompson, a black D who wanted one of the more liberal black applicants screened out by the Judicial Nominating Commission to be appointed.  However, the court ruled that what she wanted was illegal, and she did not request a proper remedy of appointing one of the other (non-black) candidates approved by the commission.  Thus Judge Francis can join the court in September.

South:  Billy Corriher summarizes state supreme court elections in Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas, and North Carolina.

Numbers and Trivia:

2nd Circuit: As of September 1, Debra Ann Livingston will be the Chief Judge of the 2nd Circuit, taking over from Robert Katzmann. Katzmann was appointed by Clinton and is a D feeder judge.  Livingston was appointed by W in 2007. The Presidents who appointed chief judges of the 13 appeals courts are Clinton (4, 6, 9), W (1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, Fed), and Obama (DC).

9th Circuit:  This article analyzes the limited en banc panels of the 9th Circuit, particularly which judges are most and least likely to be selected for them.  John Doe has calculated (correctly) that there is a 24.9% chance that a limited en banc panel will have a majority of R appointed judges (ignoring senior judges).

Hispanic Judges:  Wikipedia has a list of Hispanic judges, but does not separate out federal judges.  These are Hispanic judges that Trump has appointed:
11th Circuit: Barbara Lagoa
SD-TX:  Fernando Rodriguez Jr.
SD-FL:  Roy Altman
SD-TX:  David Morales
SD-FL:  Rodolfo Ruiz
D-PR:  Raúl Arias-Marxuach
ND-GA:  Steven Grimberg
D-PR:  Silvia Carreño-Coll

There are a few more who have been nominated (corrections welcome):
CD-CA:  Fernando Aenlle-Rocha
ND-IL:  Franklin Valderrama
SD-FL:  Aileen Cannon
ED-NY:  Hector Gonzalez

History:

Supreme Court:  Dan McLaughlin shows that historical precedent supports a President and Senate of the same party filling a Supreme Court vacancy at any time, including a lame duck session.

Maryanne Trump Barry:  The President's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, is a retired judge of the 3rd Circuit and D-NJ.  She was considered a moderate who was nominated by presidents of both parties, and is not close to her brother.

ABA:  Harsh Voruganti of the Vetting Room reviews the history of the ABA having a special role rating judicial candidates and argues (from the left) that this practice should end.

Resources:
Bench Memos (National Review)
The Vetting Room
FedJudges (Twitter)
Senate Cloakroom (Twitter)
Senate Judiciary Committee
ABA Judicial Ratings
Wikipedia-Trump Judges
Wikipedia-US Appeals Courts
Senior Status Spreadsheet
Future Judicial Vacancies
BostonPatriot diaries: History Trump DC-5 6-11 9th
Ballotpedia-State Supreme Court Vacancies
The Supreme Courts
2020: March April May June July August

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