Law Clerk Addict's Blog
Nearly a month ago, we noted in a clerkship series post that the Senate Judiciary Committee had sent four federal judicial nominations to the Senate for a vote, encouraging prospective clerkship applicants to polish their applications off to receive a federal clerkship in October or beyond. So far, it looks like we chose the word "beyond" wisely--opportunities may extend well into the spring given the current pace of things.
Notably, however, this was a good week for Obama judicial nominees: two district judges, Irene Cornelia Berger (S.D. W. Va.) and Roberto Lange (D.S.D.) were confirmed. For context, these two confirmations reflect a staggering one-half of the lower federal judges who have been confirmed since President Obama took office last January.
Judge Berger was confirmed on October 27, and Judge Lange was confirmed on October 21.
This past Tuesday Jeffrey Viken (D.S.D.) earned the distinction of becoming President Barack Obama's first district judge nominee to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Magistrate Judges Richard Seeborg (N.D. Cal.) and Edward Chen (N.D. Cal.), who have both been nominated to district judgeships on their court, received a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday.
President Obama has nominated Magistrate Judges Edward Chen and Richard Seeborg to vacant district judgeships on the Northern District of California and nominated law firm partner Dolly Gee to a vacant judgeship on the Central District of California.
There's been relatively little on the judicial nomination front (outside of the Supreme Court, that is), but here are a few items of note:
* Federal public defender Jeffrey Viken, one of President Obama's nominees to the District of South Dakota, had his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week.
* University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias discusses a vacanacy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that has gone unfilled for more than 15 years.
* The St. Petersburg Times provides an overview of the very slow pace of President Obama's judicial nominations, with a particular focus on the impact on the Middle District of Florida, which has called in 20 judges from other district courts across the country to help manage a heavy backlog of civil cases.
Today President Barack Obama nominated Abdul K. Kallon and Jacqueline H. Nguyen, respectively, to vacant district judgeships on the Northern District of Alabama and the Central District of California.
Biographical information for each of these nominees can be found below the fold.
The Detroit Free Press reports that President Barack Obama is likely to nominate two Michigan state trial court judges to vacancies on the Eastern District of Michigan.
Philly.com reports that District Judge Bruce Kauffman (E.D. Pa.) will resign from the bench effective Monday, July 20, 2009 in order to return to private practice.
The Martinsburg Journal reports that, in a sign of potential bipartisanship, West Virginia Senators Robert Byrd (D) and Jay Rockefeller (D) have recommended that President Barack Obama re-nominate failed Bush district court nominee William J. Powell, a Republican, to a seat on the Northern District of West Virginia.
Two days ago we reported that President Barack Obama's decision to delegate the selection of a nominee to replace disgraced former judge Samuel Kent (S.D. Tex.) to Congressional Democrats rather than Texas's two Republican home-state Senators set the stage for a potential conflict between President Obama and Senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson and John Cornyn that, if taken to its natural conclusion, could significantly delay confirmation of nominees to these Texas seats.
Now, it appears that delay will be inevitable, with Texas Senate Republicans and Texas Congressional Democrats conducting parallel nominee screening processes to determine a potential replacement for Chief Judge Hayden Head (S.D. Tex.), who intends to assume senior status in November. Although it is true that Republicans are a minority in the Senate, there are many instances in which home-state minority senators have been able to successfully obstruct district judge nominees that lack their approval. See, e.g., Carl Levin's (D-MI) obstruction of President George W. Bush's nominees to the Western District of Michigan for more than six years until Bush agreed to nominate some Democrats to the seats.
On a related note, those interested in biographical information about potential nominees to replace Chief Judge Head may find this article useful.
It has been a pretty active day with respect to federal district court nominations, even though President Barack Obama has not actually made any judicial nominations today.
* Dave Freudenthal, the Democratic governor of Wyoming, has been lobbying President Obama since March to nominate his wife, attorney Nancy Freudenthal, to a vacant position in the District of Wyoming. To his credit, it does not appear that President Obama intends to act on the governor's recommendation.
* Freshman Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) has submitted recommended nominees to President Obama for vacant judgeships in the Eastern District of North Carolina and the Middle District of North Carolina. It does not appear that Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) participated in this process.
* While on the subject of excluding Republicans from the judicial nomination process, President Obama announced today that, when it comes to filling the vacancy created by the resignation of disgraced former judge Samuel Kent (S.D. Tex.), he intends to ignore the recommendations of Senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) and John Cornyn (R-TX) unless their proposed nominees are approved by Texas's Democratic Congressmen.
* In related Southern District of Texas news, Chief Judge Hayden Head has announced that whoever replaces former Judge Kent will be based in McAllen rather than Galveston due to the ever growing McAllen docket.
* Although no judges were nominated today, President Obama did nominate U.S. Attorneys for Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Ohio, and South Dakota. While not directly related to judicial nominations, even the most cursory examination of district court judge biographies on this site will quickly reveal that service as a U.S. Attorney, particularly in a President's first term, often leads to a district court nomination down the road.
This afternoon President Barack Obama nominated Irene Berger to a vacant distrit judgeship in the Southern District of West Virginia and Roberto Lange to a vacant district judgeship in the District of South Dakota. It seems Obama has a particular interest in South Dakota, for, as you may recall, Obama nominated Jeffrey Viken for another vacancy on that court a mere week and a half ago. Significantly, with the exception of Obama's nomination of Charlene Honeywell to the Middle District of Florida, none of Obama's district court nominees have been to courts designated by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts as judicial emergencies.
In related judicial nominations news, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) announced today that he has recommended that President Obama nominate state Judge Christina Reiss to a vacancy in the District of Vermont. Although the final decision on who to nominate always rests with President Obama, it would be highly surprising if Obama did not nominate Judge Reiss given Senator Leahy's status as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
* A Denver Post editorial laments President Barack Obama's failure to timely nominate individuals for two vacant positions in the District of Colorado, which the paper fears will result in that court becoming bogged down.
* Ohio's senators have recommended that Magistrate Judge Timothy Black (S.D. Ohio) be promoted to a district judgeship on his court. Of course, this is merely a recommendation (albeit one that will carry significant weight) and the decision of who to nominate for this post ultimately rests with President Obama.
Although one may not traditionally think of the federal judicial nomination process as a "campaign," it appears that one local attorney has formally announced his candidacy to replace former Judge Samuel Kent (S.D. Tex.).
Senators George Voinovich (R-OH) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have announced three finalists to receive their joint recommendation to replace Judge Peter Economus (N.D. Ohio), who has announced his intent to retire next year. After conducting personal interviews with each candidate, the senators expect to announce their selection within the next few weeks.
Of course, the decision of who to nominate rests solely with President Obama, who, like his predecessors, is free to completely disregard the home state senators' recommendations and nominate someone else.
Although it is relatively old (published in January 2008), those considering federal district court clerkships may find this Legal Times article identifying district judges with the biggest case backlogs very interesting.
Hat Tip: LCA Forum
The Denver Post reports that, although President Barack Obama has begun the process of sending district court nominations to the U.S. Senate, it is highly unlikely that any of the vacant judgeships in the District of Colorado will be filled by the end of this year.
President Barack Obama has announced his first two district court nominations: federal public defender Jeffrey Viken to the District of South Dakota and Florida state circuit judge Charlene Honeywell to the Middle District of Florida.
As usual, the end of the month brings about a flurry of retirements and elections to senior status. Today represents the last day of active service for the following federal district judges:
* Maxine Chesney (N.D. Cal.) (senior)
* Helen Gillmor (D. Haw.) (senior)
* Richard Webber (E.D. Mo.) (senior)
* Garvan Murtha (D. Vt.) (senior)
* Lawrence Piersol (D.S.D.) (senior)
* Samuel Kent (S.D. Tex.) (resignation)
In addition, Judges Peter Economus (N.D. Ohio) and Larry McKinney (S.D. Ind.) will take senior status on July 3 and July 4, respectively.
The Houston Chronicle reports that Judge Samuel Kent (S.D. Tex.), faced with the prospect of a trial in the Senate to remove him from office, has formally resigned from the bench effective June 30, 2009.
The ABA Journal reports that Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a former prosecutor, has been appointed to chair the Senate committee handling the prosecution of District Judge Samuel Kent (S.D. Tex.). According to the journal, the Senate is expected to start Judge Kent's trial within a few weeks.
Those looking for a carefree, low-stress clerkship with very low work hours might want to think twice about applying to the District of Maryland, if a recent Baltimore Sun article about the increasing workload of judges at the court is correct. According to the newspaper, the court, which it already characterizes as one of the busiest federal district courts in the nation, is going to face a significant setback if Obama Fourth Circuit nominee Judge Andre Davis (D. Md.) is confirmed, and may face even greater challenges if more district judges take senior status (which every sitting D. Md. judge will be eligible for within the next seven years) and reduce their caseload.
The Houston Chronicle reports that the House of Representatives has unanimously voted to impeach District Judge Samuel Kent (S.D. Tex.). The newspaper further reports that the Senate is likely to hold Judge Kent's trial next month.
The Houston Chronicle reports that Judge Samuel Kent (S.D. Tex.), the first federal judge to be convicted of a sex crime, has surrendered to authorities and begun to serve his 33-month prison sentence. In related news, the House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved articles of impeachment, which have been forwarded to the full House for a vote. As reported earlier, this impeachment vote is necessary because Judge Kent has refused to resign so that he may continue to earn his judicial salary while in prison.
For those interested in how federal district court clerks are hired, as well as their substantive job duties, you might want to check out this very interesting article on that subject. Here is the abstract:
While a number of recent books and articles have closely examined the hiring and utilization of United States Supreme Court law clerks, much less is known about the selection and employment of lower federal court law clerks. This lack of knowledge is particularly pronounced for federal district court law clerks, and the shortage of basic information about such law clerks, combined with the large number of cases processed each year by the federal district courts, suggests that a careful study of federal district court law clerks is long overdue. Using original survey data of 311 active and senior federal district court judges, we take the first step in delineating the institutional rules and norms surrounding the selection and use of law clerks in the federal district courts. Our findings reveal that federal district court judges assign their law clerks a number of substantive job duties, findings which raise important new questions about law clerk influence in the lower federal courts.
See here for the details.
Some recent happenings from the Southern District of Texas:
* Judge Samuel Kent (S.D. Tex.), who was sentenced to 33 months incarceration last month for obstruction of justice, has announced that he intends to resign from the bench next June. The ABA Journal reports that Judge Kent has delayed his resignation "because it would take the Senate at least that long to conduct impeachment proceedings."
* Though somewhat overshadowed by his more newsworthy soon-to-be-former colleague, Judge George Kazen (S.D. Tex.) assumed senior status on May 31, 2009, creating a new vacancy for President Obama to fill.
* Thanks to an extremely generous tip (well, more like a minor data dump!), a significant number of law clerks for the 2009-10 term have been input into the database for the Southern District of Texas and the other federal district courts in Texas.
As those of you who currently work for the government know, today is Memorial Day, meaning that clerks and other federal employees do not have to go to work (well, with some exceptions). But some of you may not know that while all federal courts observe the standard federal holidays, employees of some federal courts have local holidays off as well. Here is a small sampling of this year's bonus holidays for some courts:
D. Alaska - Seward's Day [source].
S.D. Cal. - Cesar Chavez Day, Day After Thanksgiving [source].
D. Del. - Good Friday [source].
D. Guam - Liberation Day [source].
D. Haw. - Prince Kuhio Day, King Kamehameha Day, Admissions Day [source].
D. Md. - Day After New Year, Day After Thanksgiving [source].
S.D.N.Y. - Lincoln's Birthday [source].
D.V.I. - Good Friday, Carnival [source].
District Judge Samuel J. Kent (S.D. Tex.) was sentenced today to 33 months in prison for obstruction of justice.
This is somewhat old news, but the Alabama Press Register reports that Kit Nelson, a career law clerk for Judge Kristi DuBose (S.D. Ala.) will be appointed to a new magistrate judgeship on the same court, pending a successful background check (which will take several months).
I post this not only to congratulate future-Judge Nelson, but to give potential law clerk applicants for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 term a heads-up about the forthcoming appointment. Within the next couple of weeks I hope this site will have a running list of pending nominations and future appointments to enable applicants to send in pre-appointment clerkship applications.