After President-elect Donald Trump won last month, federal district judges in North Carolina and Ohio decided against seeking semi-retired status. However, a Democrat-appointed federal judge from North Carolina, U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn, rescinded his decision to create a new judicial vacancy. Time is running out for President Joe Biden to nominate and confirm new judges before Democrats lose their majority in the U.S. Senate on Jan. 3, 2025. Cogburn, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2011, had initially planned to take on senior status in 2022, but his name was removed from the list of expected vacancies on Nov. 30. The failure to nominate a replacement for Cogburn was due to disagreements between the White House and North Carolina’s Republican senators, Thom Tillis and Ted Budd.
Similarly, U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley of Ohio, appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1997, also decided to withdraw his bid for senior status after Trump’s election victory. Ohio’s senators, Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican J.D. Vance, could not reach an agreement with Biden on a replacement for Marbley. Trump urged Senate Republicans not to confirm Biden’s remaining judicial nominees before his inauguration, claiming that Democrats were trying to stack the courts with radical left judges.
It is crucial for judges not to play partisan politics during a presidential transition, as highlighted by Tillis, who emphasized the importance of honoring commitments to assume senior status. The situation underscores the challenges of judicial nominations and confirmations in the ever-changing political landscape.
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