Friday, January 03, 2025

January 2025 Judiciary News

Biden in Review:

Let's review Biden's judicial appointments over the past 4 years.

Supreme Court:  Breyer retired, and was replaced by Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Circuit judges:  Biden filled 45 circuit court seats (3 in 2024).  This compares to President Trump’s appointment of 54 Circuit judges in his first term. Seven R-appointed judges retired under Biden and two others who left very late in Trump's term were replaced by Biden.  Four (Torruella, Hall, White, and Rovner) were liberal, and 5 (Howard, Smith, Gibbons, Flaum, Kanne) were moderate to conservative.

Eight Biden appointees are in red states (TN, IN, LA, SC, TX, KS, TN, FL) and 3 in purple states (PA, MT, OH).  Five (IN, LA, SC, TX, KS) had support from home state R senators, and 6 (2 TN, PA, MT, OH, FL) did not.  Only 5 of 45 circuit appointees is a white male.  The most votes for a circuit judge was 80 for Irma Ramirez, and the smallest margin was 1 for Jennifer Sung and Andre Mathis.  Biden’s appointed the most judges (8) to the 9th Circuit.  The largest proportional impact was on the 1st Circuit, where Biden appointed 4 of 6 judges.  Biden did not appoint any judges to the 8th Circuit.

There are 4 current and future vacancies that can be filled by Trump (one judge could un-retire).  There are 26 R-appointed and 14 D-appointed circuit court judges who are eligible for senior status but have not yet taken it.

District Judges:  Biden appointed 187 district judges (61 in 2024).  This compares to President Trump’s appointment of 174 District judges in his first term.  23 (IA, 3 IN, ID, 3 LA, 2 OK, 3 TX, SC, 4 FL, WY, NB, UT, 2 SD) appointees are in red states, and 10 (4 OH, 4 PA, ME, WI) are in purple states.

Six district judges were confirmed by voice vote.  Ann Marie Allen (D-UT) was approved 100-0.  Aside from them, the most votes was 90 for Leon Schydlower (WD-TX) and Camela Theeler (D-SD).  Twelve judges were confirmed by 1-vote margins. 

There are 37 current district court vacancies (35 red, 0 purple, 2 blue) and 4 future district court vacancies (2 red, 1 purple, 1 blue).  Eight red states (NC, AL, MS, TN, AR, MO, KS, AK) and one purple state (MT) had no Biden appointees and at least one vacancy, while two red states (KY, ND) and one purple state (WV) had no vacancies.

Review:  Thomas Jipping reviews Biden's appointees in the context of the history of judicial confirmations under previous presidents.

Review:  David Lat assesses Biden's appointees in terms of diversity, ideology, and influence.

Review:  John Doe has a chart of all federal judges who had multiple former clerks appointed by Biden to the bench.

Nominations, Hearings, Confirmations:

Senate Judiciary Committee:  The committee has several new members.  Adam Schiff (D-CA) succeeded appointed Senator Laphonza Butler (D-CA) on the committee after winning her senate seat.  Jon Ossoff (D-GA) will no longer be on the committee; he notably opposed the nomination of Sarah Netburn to SD-NY in 2024.  Tom Cotton (R-AR) will leave the committee.  Mike Crapo (R-ID), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), and Katie Britt (R-AL) will join the committee.

Blue slip:  D senators claim that they are fighting to retain the blue slip for district judges.  However, there is no indication that it is in danger, as Senator Chuck Grassley says he is keeping it.

Supreme Court:  David Lat identifies four appeals court judges as leading contenders for a future Supreme Court vacancy.  They are Amul Thapar (6th Circuit), James Ho (5th Circuit), Andy Oldham (5th Circuit), and Patrick Bumatay (9th Circuit).

Nominations:
TBA

The Federal Judiciary:

Judgeships: President Biden signed a bill to make all 10 temporary federal district court judgeships permanent after it passed the House by a 390-0 vote.  The judgeships are located in WD-NC, ED-TX, ED-MO, D-AZ, D-HI, CD-CA, D-KS, D-NM, SD-FL, and ND-AL.

Judgeships:  President Biden vetoed the JUDGES Act after it passed the House of Representatives by a 236-173 vote.  Biden dubiously claimed that new judgeships were unjustified, but it seems more likely just didn't want President Trump to make some appointments.  The bill would have created 66 new judgeships over the next 12 years.

Supreme Court:  David Lat reports on Supreme Court clerk hiring.  Notably, he infers that no justices are planning to retire in 2025.

4th Circuit:  Justice James Wynn has revoked his senior status declaration, presumably to stop his seat from being filled by Trump.  Ed Whelan argues that he can do so, but that it is disreputable.

Revocations:  Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) criticized judges who withdraw their senior status declarations after an election.  He suggested they may face ethics complaints due to the perception of partisan bias.  Judges James Wynn (4th Circuit), Algenon Marbley (SD-OH) and Max Cogburn (WD-NC) have withdrawn their senior status declarations since the November election.

D-MA:  Senior district Judge Michael Ponsor (D-MA) was admonished by a federal judge for an ethics violation due to writing an essay criticizing the flying of flags with political messages.  This was an apparent reference to the controversy about the flags flown by Justice Alito's wife.

Vacancy Declarations:  There are now 45 current and future judicial vacancies.  New vacancies over the past month are listed below.
ND-AL: Scott Coogler (W) 1/2/25 (retired)

State Supreme Courts:

Alaska:  Governor Mike Dunleavy appointed lawyer Aimee Oravec to the Alaska Supreme Court seat vacated by Chief Justice Peter Maassen on January 14.  She is the "lead attorney for Doyon Utilities LLC, which is part of the regional Native corporation for the Interior."

Arizona:  The Arizona Commission on Appellate Court Appointments forwarded five candidates for the Arizona Supreme Court to Governor Katie Hobbs (D).  The 5 candidates include 3 Ds and 2 independents. Hobbs will appoint the replacement for Justice Robert Brutinel.

Arkansas:  Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed J. Cody Hiland to replace Courtney Rae Hudson, who was elected to a different seat on the Arkansas Supreme Court.  Hiland is a current justice on the court, who was appointed to replace another justice, but was unable to run for reelection.  Sanders also appointed Nicholas Bronni to replace Karen Baker, who was elected chief justice.  Bronni has been Solicitor General of Arkansas since 2018, and previously clerked for Jay Bybee (9th Circuit).

Kansas/Missouri:  Legislators in both Kansas and Missouri are discussing changing judicial selection in their states.  Missouri is considering direct election of judges, while Kansas is considering gubernatorial appointment.

Mississippi:  State Sen. Jenifer Branning (R) won 50.6-49.4 over incumbent Justice Jim Kitchens in the November 26 runoff election.  The result was delayed for over a week due to late-arriving mail ballots.

Nebraska:  Governor Jim Pillen (R) appointed Jason Bergevin to district 5 (rural southeast) of the Nebraska Supreme Court.  Bergevin became a district judge in 2022 and previously worked for the Nebraska Attorney General.  Bergevin was one of three nominees to succeed Jeffrey Funke, who was appointed Chief Justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court.  

Oklahoma:  Justice Yvonne Kauger retired on December 1 after losing a retention election, but before her term was scheduled to end.  Governor Kevin Stitt will appoint her replacement, who must live in the fourth district (western OK).  There are 14 applicants for the position.  One notable applicant is Mithun Mansinghani, who was Oklahoma solicitor general 2017-2022.

Texas:  Chief Justice Nathan Hecht (R) was age-limited on December 31.  He was first elected to the court in 1988, and was appointed chief justice by Rick Perry in 2013.  Greg Abbott will get his sixth appointment to the court.

Numbers and Trivia:

The Presidents who appointed chief judges of the 13 appeals courts are W (2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, Fed), and Obama (1, 4, 9, DC).  No new chief judges are guaranteed until 2027, though some may turn over sooner due to judges taking senior status.

Recent Judges:  Adam Feldman compares judges appointed by W, Obama, Trump, and Biden.  He lists which courts got the most appointees from each President, and considers law school, sex, race, and previous experience.

History:

On Ed Whelan's Substack, "Confirmation Tales", recent posts deal with nominations of lower court judges.
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