Posted by marykeating on November 5, 2009 under Court news | 
This blog has previously discussed the difficulty of delivering justice to this region, in light of five openings (out of 15) on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Two nominees have been given the green light by the Senate committee, but await full votes by the Senate. The Senate, of course, has the constitutional role of advising and consenting to judicial appointments. This role gives it the power to hold up appointments. The dusty seat reserved for Judge Andre M. Davis has been vacant more than ten years.
Well, at least President Obama is doing his part. Yesterday he nominated two North Carolina judges to the Fourth Circuit. President Clinton had earlier tapped Judge James Wynn Jr. of the North Carolina Court of Appeals; Judge Davis had the same experience of having his nomination die after a Republican took the White House. Judge Wynn is also African-American. The Fourth Circuit’s geographical region has a high population of African-Americans, so adding to the diversity of the Court would be fair and add to its perceived legitimacy. The other nominee, Judge Albert Diaz, is Hispanic. There are no current Hispanic members of the Court. More to the point for my clients, Judge Diaz has been working as a special trial judge for complex business cases. Often judges are chosen from the ranks of former prosecutors, and therefore their civil experience is meager.
Posted by marykeating on November 1, 2009 under Court news |
Barbara Keenan earned unanimous approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee to take an open spot on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Keenan has been a judge in every level in Virginia state courts, according to Legal Times. As reported here earlier, the Fourth Circuit has long been understaffed, with one of its openings vacant for ten years. Judge Andre Davis, from the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, has been waiting for a vote from the entire Senate since June.
Posted by marykeating on October 13, 2009 under Court news |
The Senate Judiciary Committee has before it seventeen nominations to the federal courts, none of which have yet been confirmed by the Senate as a whole.
It is too early to conclude that the minority in the Senate will remain successful in keeping the brakes on the process. Progress is important; as Carl Tobias points out, the federal judiciary is overly stocked with white men. (Carl Tobias is Williams Professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.) “Eighty-four percent of federal judges are white. Female jurists comprise 20%. African-Americans constitute 8%. Out of the almost 1,300 sitting federal judges, a mere 11 are Asian-American and only one is a Native American. A significant percentage of the 94 federal districts has never had a jurist who is a woman or a person of color.”
Two of the pending nominations are for the Fourth Circuit, which has been running shorthanded for years. The glacial process impairs justice. There are five openings on that court, one third of the fifteen judicial seats. In the absence of judges, appellants cannot get the attention or promptness they deserve, and practitioners suffer because fewer opinions are polished for publication.
Judge Andre M. Davis of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland has been nominated for a second time (his died when the Senate failed to take action before President Clinton’s term ended). Judge Davis has been a judge since 1987; the Fourth Circuit would be his fourth court. On June 4, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted him qualified, and sent the nomination to the full Senate. Now that Justice Sotomayor has been confirmed (two months now), the Senate should fill this seat, vacant for ten years now.
Judge Davis is well-regarded, and should easily obtain the needed votes, if the Senate just gets to it. His record is not overly liberal; in fact, the National Council on Independent Living opposes Judge Davis’s elevation because of his record on ADA cases, strictly applying the definitions of disabled to deny coverage under that law.
President Obama has also nominated a Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, Barbara Milano Keenan. She recently had a hearing before the Committee.
Posted by marykeating on July 14, 2009 under Court news |
Chief Judge Karen Williamson of the Fourth Circuit announced last week that she will retire early on disability due to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Appointed by George H. W. Bush, Judge Williamson has been on the Court of Appeals for 17 years.
There are now five openings on the Fourth Circuit. Judge Andre M. Davis of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland has been nominated, and has gotten through the Senate Committee; no vote has been held by the full Senate, which of course is focusing on Judge Sotomayor’s nomination. But the Fourth Circuit has had several vacancies for some years, all through the George W. Bush years. If President Obama manages to fill all of the open seats, the much-vaunted conservative bastion of the federal system may drift to the center. The extent to which this will help employment discrimination plaintiffs will depend in part on the Supreme Court, which does not seem to be heading toward the center anytime soon, barring an unexpected vacancy in the conservative majority. Still, with the Fourth Circuit up to full strength, perhaps there will be more attention paid to appeals that may now be routinely disposed of per curium.
