9th Circuit Court of Appeals watch (judges & composition of CA9, not cases)

[Paladin]

The confirmation of Neomi Rao to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, on a 53-46 vote, as well as Paul Matey earlier this week to the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit, now means one out of every five appeals court judge will have been nominated by Trump.

Now, just nine vacancies remain in the circuit courts, which handles the vast majority of cases that never reach the Supreme Court, and Trump has nominated candidates for six of them. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) could muscle through confirmations by midyear, leaving few openings if a Democrat wins the White House in 2020.

<snip>

There is little that McConnell prioritizes more in the Senate than confirming judges. In the first two years of Trump’s presidency, the GOP-led Senate successfully installed two justices to the Supreme Court, as well as 30 circuit court judges and 53 judges to the lower-level district courts.

So far this year, the Senate has confirmed a half-dozen circuit court judges. And of the six remaining circuit judges who have been nominated by Trump, three have cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee and are awaiting a confirmation vote in the full Senate.

The panel also held hearings for two nominees to California-based seats on the 9th Circuit Court earlier Wednesday — Daniel Collins and Kenneth Lee. Both are opposed by the state’s two Democratic senators, Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, but are likely to be confirmed anyway.

Senate Republicans now plan to quickly pivot to filling the 129 vacancies in the lower-level district courts....

More at: https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-...314-story.html

[Baja Daze]

MAGA!

Trump has made 3 appointments to the 9th so far, 5 vacancies remaining to be filled, plus there are 6 liberal judges 70+. If even a couple of these elderly liberal judges retire and Trump rams through the 5 vacancies, we could end up with a balanced court. Already liberals can't count on winning en bancs.

We still have a long road to go in the 9th Circus....

We have 9 Klinton Judges; 7 Barry Judges; 5 G.W. Bush Judges and 3 Trump Judges, however one is Bennett in Hawaii and is considered an anti....

So that's a current margin of 17-7 with 5 current vacancies to hopefully be filled by Trump, however that still leaves us with the score at just 17-12.

Hopefully the septuagenarian libtard Judges start retiring...

[OleCuss]

Trump is sort of naive on some of this stuff. He literally may not know what he can do.

But if his advisers explained things properly as you did, it might have been deemed politically advisable to follow the course he did (I don't claim to know why).

BTW, I'm pretty sure that even a SCOTUS justice is not required to have attended law school. I could technically be appointed to the SCOTUS even though I've never even visited a law school.

Yes, you'd not likely to get many votes for me, however. But heck, if I were on the SCOTUS I could get some good clerks, shut up during orals, and just vote with my clerks. If my clerks were fascists the media would consider me to be a legal genius!

[LVSox]

Thank you for quoting me on that!

I will add there's another issue, which is duty stations, where a judge must not only reside in a certain state, but in a certain area. However, Hawaii has only one duty station which is the entire state, so that's not really a factor there. But that is another factor to consider if you're ever asking yourself, "how did this unknown person get nominated to be a judge at the circuit level". Judges spend 3/4 of their time in their duty station dealing with mundane issues like bankruptcies, which don't have anything to do with bigger constitutional issues.

BTW, I analyzed, are there ANY other candidates in Hawaii who were qualified, and the answer is no. There are almost no Republicans in Hawaii who have been elected to any office. I looked for the intersection of Republican, elected to any state-level office in Hawaii, who are attorneys, and who are not too old, and there was only one guy within the intersection of that Venn diagram. I guess he could have found a private practice attorney but a) having some public experience is important and b) there would be even less of a partisan record for such a private attorney and c) it would be hard to find a solid conservative private attorney in Hawaii.

For all these reasons, Bennett was not a mistake.

[Paladin]

the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday for Daniel Collins and Kenneth Lee, nominees to fill two vacant California seats on the 9th Circuit, prompting backlash from Sens. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the top Democrat on the panel, and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), a fellow committee member who is running for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination.

More at: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/...ters-new-phase

Once these 2 are on CA9, there will still be 3 openings with 2 nominees to go: Bade, Bress and an open seat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Ninth_Circuit#Vacancies_and_pending_nominations

[CCWFacts]

See below from the first page of this thread, emphasis mine.

Thank you for quoting me on that!

I will add there's another issue, which is duty stations, where a judge must not only reside in a certain state, but in a certain area. However, Hawaii has only one duty station which is the entire state, so that's not really a factor there. But that is another factor to consider if you're ever asking yourself, "how did this unknown person get nominated to be a judge at the circuit level". Judges spend 3/4 of their time in their duty station dealing with mundane issues like bankruptcies, which don't have anything to do with bigger constitutional issues.

BTW, I analyzed, are there ANY other candidates in Hawaii who were qualified, and the answer is no. There are almost no Republicans in Hawaii who have been elected to any office. I looked for the intersection of Republican, elected to any state-level office in Hawaii, who are attorneys, and who are not too old, and there was only one guy within the intersection of that Venn diagram. I guess he could have found a private practice attorney but a) having some public experience is important and b) there would be even less of a partisan record for such a private attorney and c) it would be hard to find a solid conservative private attorney in Hawaii.

For all these reasons, Bennett was not a mistake.

[ajb78]

See below from the first page of this thread, emphasis mine.

I believe you are mixing up two issues. One is

blue slips

In each circuit (other than the Federal judicial circuit [DC]) there shall be at least one circuit judge in regular active service appointed from the residents of each state in that circuit

This is because there needs to be a federal circuit judge in every state to deal with matters in that state such as injunctions. The CA9 is in San Francisco but judges maintain offices in every state in the circuit. That means some judge seats must come from certain states.

[SPGuy]

MAGA!

Trump has made 3 appointments to the 9th so far, 5 vacancies remaining to be filled, plus there are 6 liberal judges 70+. If even a couple of these elderly liberal judges retire and Trump rams through the 5 vacancies, we could end up with a balanced court. Already liberals can't count on winning en bancs.

[Sputnik]

A glimmer of hope for the future of those living in the 9th's jurisdiction, hooray!

[CCWFacts]

MAGA!

Trump has made 3 appointments to the 9th so far, 5 vacancies remaining to be filled, plus there are 6 liberal judges 70+. If even a couple of these elderly liberal judges retire and Trump rams through the 5 vacancies, we could end up with a balanced court. Already liberals can't count on winning en bancs.

[Offwidth]

And he has BS in Physics from Harvard. Really helps with ability to think rationally.

[wireless]

Eric D. Miller became the 9th circuit court of the Appeals court. He's nominated by the POTUS. I wonder if he's a conservative judge or liberal judge. I couldn't find much info on him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_D._Miller

He clerked for Clarence Thomas. Maybe one day he will replace him on SCOTUS.

[pacrat]

Eric D. Miller became the 9th circuit court of the Appeals court. He's nominated by the POTUS. I wonder if he's a conservative judge or liberal judge. I couldn't find much info on him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_D._Miller

If he was liberal leaning he wouldn't have lasted more than 2 minutes clerking for Clarence Thomas.

[Paladin]

Eric D. Miller became the 9th circuit court of the Appeals court. He's nominated by the POTUS. I wonder if he's a conservative judge or liberal judge. I couldn't find much info on him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_D._Miller

All Trump judicial nominees have been recommended by the Federalist Society, so they all should be strict constitutionalists -- exercising judgment, not will; declaring "what the law is, not what it should be."

[Ishooter]

Eric D. Miller became the 9th circuit court of the Appeals court. He's nominated by the POTUS. I wonder if he's a conservative judge or liberal judge. I couldn't find much info on him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_D._Miller