{"id":105648,"date":"2021-01-27T22:46:43","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T22:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=105648"},"modified":"2021-01-27T22:46:43","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T22:46:43","slug":"federal-judges-are-retiring-now-that-joe-biden-will-pick-their-replacements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/federal-judges-are-retiring-now-that-joe-biden-will-pick-their-replacements\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judges Are Retiring Now That Joe Biden Will Pick Their Replacements"},"content":{"rendered":"

For at least one federal judge, it appeared that President Joe Biden couldn\u2019t be sworn in fast enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been my honor to serve,\u201d U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts wrote to Biden on Inauguration Day, roughly <\/span>90 minutes after he took office<\/span>, announcing her plans to step down. \u201cWith respect, I congratulate you on your election as the 46th President of the United States, and Kamala Harris on her election as Vice President.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Roberts, who has been a judge on the Eastern District Court of Michigan since 1998, announced she would be taking senior status \u2014 or begin semi-retirement \u2014 on Feb. 24. That opens up a new court vacancy for Biden to fill.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a copy of Roberts\u2019 letter:<\/p>\n

Roberts is one of five federal judges with lifetime appointments who have announced plans to retire or semi-retire since last Wednesday, the day Donald Trump left the White House,\u00a0according to data provided by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. That\u2019s after eight judges had already announced their plans to step down since Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election.<\/span><\/p>\n

The retirements keep coming. On Tuesday, two more U.S. district judges\u00a0announced their plans to take senior status, though their names aren\u2019t yet listed on the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts\u2019 website. And there are likely others in the queue with similar plans.<\/p>\n

While judges may, of course, have personal reasons for retiring or semi-retiring at the beginning of Biden\u2019s presidency, it\u2019s safe to say, for the most part, that the timing of these judges\u2019 departures isn\u2019t coincidental: They wanted Biden to pick their replacements, not Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations on becoming our new president,\u201d U.S. District Judge William Alsup wrote to Biden a day after he was inaugurated. \u201cI feel it is time now for me to \u2018go senior.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a copy of Alsup\u2019s letter:<\/p>\n

In total, eight of these retiring judges were appointed by President Bill Clinton, and two were appointed by President Barack Obama; it would make sense that they\u2019d want a Democratic president to fill their vacancies. But five of these judges were appointed by President George W. Bush.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that a federal judge will only retire when the current president is of the same party as the president who nominated them. But it can be a motivating factor, particularly for judges who served while Trump was in office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is less of a custom than for a Supreme Court nominee, where justices really do try to time their departures so the opposite party doesn\u2019t get to replace them,\u201d said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor and expert on judicial nominations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStill, I think Trump skews perspective here,\u201d he continued. \u201cI think that Trump was so nasty to federal judges and so counter to the rule of law that he repelled many federal judges.\u00a0<\/span>I think for strong Democrats in particular, I could see judges saying, \u2018No, I\u2019m not going to let him replace me.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Biden hasn\u2019t nominated any judges yet, but his team wrote to Democratic senators last month asking them to provide judicial nominee recommendations for existing district court vacancies \u201cas soon as possible,\u201d and no later than Jan. 19.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, Biden has 46 district court vacancies and three appeals court vacancies to fill \u2015 numbers that will only continue to grow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The president has some work to do if he wants to counter the effect that Trump had on the nation\u2019s courts. Thanks in large part to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell\u2019s laser focus on confirming judges, Trump put more than 230 people into lifetime judgeships. That\u2019s far more than Obama (175), Bush (206) and Clinton (204) confirmed in their first terms.<\/p>\n

Many of Trump\u2019s judges fit a particular mold, too: They are white, male, right-wing ideologues. Biden has vowed to infuse far more diversity into the courts, including putting a Black woman on the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

Source: Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For at least one federal judge, it appeared that President Joe Biden couldn\u2019t be sworn in fast enough. \u201cIt has been my honor to serve,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":105647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nFederal Judges Are Retiring Now That Joe Biden Will Pick Their Replacements - Fin2me<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/federal-judges-are-retiring-now-that-joe-biden-will-pick-their-replacements\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Federal Judges Are Retiring Now That Joe Biden Will Pick Their Replacements - Fin2me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For at least one federal judge, it appeared that President Joe Biden couldn\u2019t be sworn in fast enough. \u201cIt has been my honor to serve,\u201d [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/federal-judges-are-retiring-now-that-joe-biden-will-pick-their-replacements\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fin2me\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-27T22:46:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/ccelebritiesfoto600f37e6260000a90facfa62.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/federal-judges-are-retiring-now-that-joe-biden-will-pick-their-replacements\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/politics\/federal-judges-are-retiring-now-that-joe-biden-will-pick-their-replacements\/\",\"name\":\"Federal Judges Are Retiring Now That Joe Biden Will Pick Their Replacements - 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