A fascinating subplot of politics in recent years has been the rush, among presidents of both parties, to confirm judges and fill judicial vacancies while they’re still in power.
During Donald Trump’s first term, he appointed three Supreme Court justices and hundreds of federal judges to lower courts. President Biden has only placed one person on the Supreme Court but gotten more than 200 federal judges confirmed. When Trump returns to office in 2025, it will be his turn to appoint his own judges.
Biden has been trying to get some last-minute confirmations through during the lame-duck period, which has led to some Republican outrage about “ramming through” judges, but Biden is still president, the Senate remains Democratic-controlled, and Trump appointed several judges in his final days in office.
Now, there’s word of another front in these battles: Another Democratically-appointed judge has become the third to rescind their taking of senior status and will remain on the bench.
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According to Law & Crime, Fourth Circuit Judge James Wynn Jr. of North Carolina, an Obama appointee, wrote a letter to President Biden this week reversing his early decision to take senior status. Biden had previously nominated North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park to take Wynn’s judgeship, but Park reportedly lacked the votes for confirmation.
“I write to advise that, after careful consideration, I have decided to continue in active regular service,” Judge Wynn told Biden in the letter. “As a result of that decision, I respectfully withdraw my letter to you of January 5, 2024. I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused.”
You’r eright. Presidents choose judges. Unfortunately, Sen. Tillis thought Biden should let him pick the nominee for the 4th Circuit and when Biden picked an imminently qualified individual, he blew up the nomination of Ryan Park. Wynn never retired. He just said he would. Tough. https://t.co/2wUbZVbjO2
— Judge Bob Orr (@JudgeBobOrr) December 15, 2024
This led to a rebuke from that state’s Republican Senator, Thom Tillis, who called it “partisan” and “unprecedented.”
“Judge Wynn’s brazenly partisan decision to rescind his retirement is an unprecedented move that demonstrates some judges are nothing more than politicians in robes,” Tillis wrote. “Judge Wynn clearly takes issue with the fact that Donald Trump was just elected President, and this decision is a slap in the face to the U.S. Senate, which came to a bipartisan agreement to hold off on confirming his replacement until the next Congress is sworn-in in January. The Senate Judiciary Committee should hold a hearing on his blatant attempt to turn the judicial retirement system into a partisan game, and he deserves the ethics complaints and recusal demands from the Department of Justice heading his way.”
U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn Jr. of the Western District of North Carolina, an Obama appointee, and U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley of the Southern District of Ohio, a Clinton appointee, had earlier rescinded their retirement decisions, although neither had a replacement named.
Featured image via screengrab
