Progress Continues on the Fourth Circuit

Posted by marykeating on March 3, 2010 under Court news | Be the First to Comment

The Senate voted 99-0 to approve the nomination of Barbara Keenan to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.  As reported here before, the pace of replacement judges had been glacial.  The Fourth Circuit has an enormous workload, and part of the consequence is that many opinions are unreported and short.  Reported opinions are helpful to litigants and their lawyers as precedential.  This is especially true in the employment arena, which changes rapidly, and is so fact-dependent.  The Fourth Circuit is historically quite conservative; but when the Supreme Court changes the interpretation of discrimination laws, the Fourth Circuit has to react.

Judge Keenan is the first woman jurist from Virginia to serve on the Fourth Circuit