Litigation

Senior Judges Help ?Rescue? Ninth Circuit

By Peter Hardin

You can see a human face of the federal judgeship vacancy crisis in a photo of senior Judge Betty Fletcher, a snowy white-haired Washington state native who on the verge of her 88th birthday is hard at work, seven days a week.

Judge Fletcher (photo) loves her work, wants to pitch in during a time of crisis and is proud to bring “a set of values and viewpoints” to the court that helped earn her appointment by President Jimmy Carter 32 years ago, she said.

A Los Angeles Times article features a photograph of Judge Fletcher under the headline, “Senior judges keep 9th Circuit courthouses open.” The sub-headline declares, “As federal caseloads soar and judgeships go unfilled because of a recalcitrant Congress, some retired judges continue to preside over trials. Some are in their 80s.”

Judge Fletcher retired a dozen years ago but still is working full-time in senior status for the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She is part of a team of senior judges who have come to the “rescue” of overburdened courts struggling to keep up with caseload amid vacancies now adding up to 11 percent of the 875 lifetime judgeships nationwide.

Some statistics in the article are especially compelling:

• The caseload of senior judges in the Ninth Circuit accounted for one-third of the court’s work in the year ending in September.
• Of the circuit’s 19 senior judges, 13 are past 80 years old.
• Of three open seats on the Ninth Circuit, one has been vacant for longer than six years, reflecting what one scholar calls a trend toward lengthening periods between a vacancy opening and getting filled.

Arthur Hellman, a University of Pittsburgh law professor, said the status quo of judges working into their 80s can’t always go on. “It’s a looming problem that will reach a period, probably fairly soon, where the percentage of help you can get from seniors is substantially reduced,” he said. “Then the court will really be in trouble.”

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 14, 2011 (boomark / email).