One Judge Confirmed This Week

[cotton1706]

This will be a weekly post.

Count is now 220 judges confirmed

2 Trade Court judges

162 District Court judges

53 Circuit Court judges

3 Supreme Court justices

We've been waiting for this one! Only one judge confirmed this week. But it was a doozy!!

On Monday, Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed by the US Senate to the Supreme Court of the United States!

Take a look at the above numbers and picture yourself four years ago, the weekend before the election. The above would be unthinkable, impossible even. But it's real. Leave out the three (yes THREE) Supreme Court justices for a moment. Fifty-three Circuit Court judges confirmed in less than four years, when Obama had fifty-five in EIGHT years. Amazing!

And now THREE Supreme Court justices. John Roberts has been COMPLETELY neutered. No more games from him unless he can get Gorsuch or Kavanaugh to go along. He'll have to join the majority or Clarence Thomas will be handing out the opinion assignments. So expect to see a lot of 6-3 opinions, and less pretzel-parsing of the law.

Barrett's confirmation also opens up a vacancy on the 7th Circuit, and Trump has already told the Senate he intends to nominate Thomas Kirsch to fill the seat. And on Monday, a judge on the 1st Circuit passed away. So if the Senate confirms two replacements by the end of the year, Trump will have matched Obama's 55 Circuit judges, again in less than four years.

Will Trump be reelected on Tuesday to put EVEN MORE conservatives on the bench? Will enough Senate Republicans survive to help him do so?

I'll let you know next week!

[tired&retired]

Excellent post.

Thank You.

[PghBaldy]

It feels like longer than just several days since ACB was Judgified.

[boycott]

That’s great. We really need four more years to get this nation back on the right track.

[BroJoeK]

220 judges & justices over the course of 202 weeks works out to roughly one per week.

Presumably it took some weeks to get ramped-up, but still, one per week on average is not exactly race-car speed, is it?

[Coop]

I enjoy your threads, thanks. They’re a nice, tangible kick in the butt for folks who claim there’s no difference between the two major parties.

[Coop]

one per week on average is not exactly race-car speed, is it?

For government work? That's like warp factor 5.

[cotton1706]

When you consider the general slow pace of Washington, lazy senators, the number of judges seats available, and previous president’s records, yes it is extremely high speed.

And the circumstances. 52 republicans in the first two years, then down to 51, and less than that with John McCain being out with cancer (and he worked to thwart conservative judges in the past). Not to mention Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, sometimes Ben Sasse and others.

The judicial record of the past four years is amazing!

[jmaroneps37]

Thanks for posting this. It’s a nice reminder of the progress we have made that can’t be taken away. Your work is what makes FR such a great place to get top shelf information.

[ChronicMA]

2 circuit vacancies:

7th - filling Barrett’s now vacant seat

1st - a judge appointed by Reagan died a few days ago

If we fail to hold both the presidency and the Senate these need to be filled fast

[tired&retired]

Updated October 22, 2020

This page provides information about the judgeship vacancies on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and on the 15 federal district courts within the circuit.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is authorized 29 judgeships. All 29 judgeships are currently filled.

Ninth Circuit district courts are authorized 112 judgeships. There are 20 current vacancies and one future vacancy. The duration of the vacancies ranges from 1,821 days to 234 days.

All of the current vacancies on the district courts are considered judicial emergencies based on criteria established by the Judicial Conference of the United States.

“Judicial Vacancies & Nominations” https://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/content/view_db.php?pk_id=0000000899

[tired&retired]

HIGHLIGHTS

There are currently 35 nominees awaiting a hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

There are currently 0 nominees awaiting a committee vote in the appropriate U.S. Senate committee.

There are currently 19 nominees awaiting a confirmation vote in the full U.S. Senate.

“Current federal judicial vacancies - Ballotpedia” https://ballotpedia.org/Current_federal_judicial_vacancies

[Alas Babylon!]

My understanding, and Rush was saying this last week, that every circuit court vacancy has now been filled.

So the administration is just waiting for judges to retire, die, resign before they can nominate another to fill that vacancy.

[SES1066]

Seeing this and the above posts is warming. Thinking what a Hillary 2016 victory would have changed here is every argument I needed to vote Trump in 2016. I still feel the same way so AGAIN there is no reason to change my 2020 vote!

[bakkentom]

Deceased judge 87 years old. Fortunate it happened with current POTUS. Confirm a conservative PRONTO.

[cotton1706]

You are correct. Other than the two vacancies that opened up this very week (due to elevation and death), ALL Circuit vacancies have been filled.

Including ten (YES TEN!) judges to the 9th Circuit. That circuit alone will prevent leftism from bubbling up through the courts.

[FLT-bird]

Get those two Circuit Court seats filled before the end of the year.

[SharpRightTurn]

BTTT

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

John Roberts has been COMPLETELY neutered. No more games from him unless he can get Gorsuch or Kavanaugh to go along.

. . . and considering ACB’s reputation for persuasion, getting Gorsuch or Kavanaugh to go along might not be getting any easier with her elevation to the court.

In that context, I’ve been wondering about what effect she could have on decisions on cases which were heard before her confirmation. She is IMHO barred from voting on such cases, but couldn’t she talk to her fellow Justices about them? Comes to that, the court has been hearing cases via zoom or something - is it possible that she could hear a recording of those video conferences, and be as up to speed as any of the other justices on those cases?

He'll have to join the majority or Clarence Thomas will be handing out the opinion assignments. So expect to see a lot of 6-3 opinions, and less pretzel-parsing of the law.

Love it! Roberts has reputedly wished to minimize the number of 5-4 decisions, and if he goes to the dark side in such cases now, his cover will be fully blown.

Worst case, (well, not counting a possible packed court) Roberts will assign the writing of all the big decisions to himself, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh. But he can do that only if the resulting decisions get 5 (and thus his own 6th, in the present context) votes.

. . . leaving Thomas to consider writing a dissent. But that would require the consent of Barrett and Alito. Neither of whom, I hope, would lightly allow that . . .

[kiryandil]

Reagan judge Juan R. Torruella passed away earlier this week on October 26, 2020.

Looks like Hillary! got TWO unwelcome "birthday presents".

Torruella "grew in office" (something our good friend Linda "Greenhouse Gas" Greenhouse always applauded) to become a good progressive.

His failure to retire in a timely manner probably indicates that he was part of the anti-Trump "Resistance", intent on denying the Bad Orange Man another open appellate court seat.

Since my mother always told me "If you can't say anything nice...", I'll leave it right there.

Here's the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit [As of October 26, 2020]:

Judges	6
Circuit Justice	Stephen Breyer
Chief Judge	Jeffrey R. Howard

Age	Title	        Judge	                Duty station	Born	Term of service	                Appointed by
65	Chief Judge	Jeffrey R. Howard	Concord, NH	1955	2002–present   &2015–present	G.W. Bush
87	Circuit Judge	Juan R. Torruella	San Juan, PR	1933	1984–present   &1994–2001	Reagan   [deceased]
74	Circuit Judge	Sandra Lynch	        Boston, MA	1946	1995–present   &2008–2015	Clinton
69	Circuit Judge	O. Rogeriee Thompson	Providence, RI	1951	2010–present	—	—	Obama
67	Circuit Judge	William J. Kayatta Jr.	Portland, ME	1953	2013–present	—	—	Obama
53	Circuit Judge	David Jeremiah Barron	Boston, MA	1967	2014–present	—	—	Obama

======================
93	Senior Circuit 	Levin H. Campbell	inactive	1927	1972–1992      	1992–present	Nixon        &1983–1990
86	Senior Circuit 	Bruce M. Selya	        Providence, RI	1934	1986–2006	2006–present	Reagan
81	Senior Circuit 	Michael Boudin	        Boston, MA	1939	1992–2013      	2013–present	G.H.W. Bush  &2001–2008
89	Senior Circuit  Norman H. Stahl	        Boston, MA	1931	1992–2001	2001–present	G.H.W. Bush
79	Senior Circuit 	Kermit Lipez	        Portland, ME	1941	1998–2011	2011–present	Clinton

& denotes Chief Judge of the Court
* denotes Federalist Society member

Looking forward to putting the first Federalist Society "star" next to the new judge's name.