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Bold Justice: April 9, 2018

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Bold Justice: State Supreme Court updates: elections and appointments

News around the courts

On Tuesday, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the statewide spring election. Dallet, who has received support from groups associated with the Democratic Party, was elected to replace retiring Justice Michael Gableman, a member of the court's 5-2 conservative majority. Dallet received 55.8 percent of the vote to Sauk County Circuit Judge Michael Screnock’s 44.2 percent.

Dallet's victory changes the court's composition to a 4-3 conservative majority. The next time a seat held by a member of the court's majority is up for election is 2020, meaning that in the absence of any midterm vacancies control of the court does not have the potential to change until then.

Dallet’s victory marks the first time a liberal-aligned candidate has been elected to an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court since 1995. Turnout in the election was measured at 22.2 percent, the highest turnout for a Wisconsin Supreme Court election with no other statewide offices on the ballot since 2011. In that election, conservative-aligned Justice David Prosser defeated liberal-aligned challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg.

On Thursday, Connecticut Gov. Daniel Malloy (D) nominated current Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Richard A. Robinson for the position of Chief Justice. If confirmed, Robinson would fill the vacancy created when Chief Justice Chase Rogers retired in February 2018.

Robinson has previously received support from Senate Minority Leader Leonard Fasano (R). He requires approval of both chambers of the Connecticut General Assembly to be confirmed as Chief Justice.

Malloy's previous nominee, Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald, was approved by the state House on a 75-74 vote but rejected by the state Senate 19-16.

In a simultaneous move, Malloy also appointed Steven D. Ecker to serve as a justice on the state supreme court. Ecker would be Malloy's sixth appointment to the seven-member court if confirmed.

On Thursday, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) appointed Richard Darby to the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Darby replaced former Justice Joseph Watt, who retired at the end of 2017. Darby was previously an Oklahoma district judge for Jackson County, which is located in District Three.

Selection of state court judges in Oklahoma occurs through commission-selection and political appointment in all courts except the district courts. The nine justices of the Oklahoma Supreme Court are appointed by the governor from a list of three names compiled by a nominating commission and serve initial terms of at least one year. If a judge is appointed to fill a vacancy, the appointed judge then must stand for retention in the next general election in order to serve out the remainder of his or her predecessor's term.

We #SCOTUS, so you don’t have to

This coming week, the Supreme Court is not scheduled to hear any additional arguments.

As of publication today, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in 76 cases so far this term; of those 76, the court has heard arguments in 56 cases.This number does not include Salt River Project v. Solarcity Corp., which the court removed from its docket.[1] If the court follows its practice from previous years, it will continue to hear arguments in cases this term through April 2018. Although it may continue to consider new appeals, its current number of accepted cases is higher than total number of cases it agreed to hear last term (71). With arguments scheduled through much of April, the court has a limited number of argument days left to fill. The court is likely to delay hearing argument in some of its accepted cases until next term.

Wondering where the cases are coming from this term? Check out this chart showing the number of appeals from each lower court:

Supreme Court cases 4.9.2018.png

SCOTUS trivia

The Supreme Court is usually the last stop in the legal careers of the justices. And given the job, most of them stay around for a long time. Your question: Which of the current justices has been on the court the longest?

Choose an answer to find out!

Federal court action

Confirmations

The United States Senate did not confirm any additional nominees this week. As of publication, the Senate has confirmed 29 of President Trump's nominees on courts tracked in Ballotpedia's Federal Vacancy Count. There are an additional 57 nominees awaiting a Senate confirmation vote.

Nominations

President Trump did not announce any additional nominees since our last issue.

Vacancies

As of publication, there were 152 vacancies in the federal judiciary. Of those 152 vacancies, 97 have no nominee as of yet during President Trump’s administration. According to the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts and other outlets, an additional 30 judges have announced their intention to leave active judicial status during Trump’s first term. There are 55 pending nominations to life-term, Article III judicial positions. Check out the chart below to see vacancies of four years or more:

Federal court vacancies 4.9.2018.png

Committee action

The Senate Judiciary Committee did not meet last week. The Committee is scheduled to meet this week on April 11, 2018, to consider nominations.

Love judicial nomination, confirmation, and vacancies information? We figured. Our monthly Federal Vacancy Count, which is published on the last Wednesday of every month, monitors all of the faces, places, and spaces moving in, moving out, and moving on in the federal judiciary.

Need a daily fix? Our Federal Vacancy Warning System’s got you covered with continuing updates on the status of all federal judicial nominees.

Or, if you prefer, we maintain a list of individuals nominated by President Trump.

A judge you oughta know

Every week, we at Ballotpedia want to highlight a federal judge or judicial nominee. We’re in our review of President Donald Trump’s list of 25 individuals from which he indicated he would choose nominees to fill Supreme Court vacancies. This week, let’s get to know Patrick Wyrick, a judge on the Oklahoma Supreme Court and a judge you oughta know. He was appointed to this court by Republican Governor Mary Fallin on February 9, 2017, to succeed retired Justice Steven Taylor. Wyrick received his bachelor's degree from the University of Oklahoma and his J.D.from the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

Looking ahead

Here’s what we’re looking ahead to this week:

  • The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, April 11, 2018, to discuss nominations for the following judges:
    • Mark Jeremy Bennett to be United States District Judge for the Ninth Circuit.
    • Nancy E. Brasel to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana.
    • Robert R. Summerhays to be United States District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana.
    • Eric C. Tostrud to be United States District Judge for the District of Minnesota.
    • Wendy Vitter to be United States Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

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Why Bold Justice?

Well, there’s a story behind it, and we’re happy to credit Justice Samuel Alito for the inspiration. Back in October of 2014, Justice Alito joined his fellow Supreme Court Yale Law alumni, Justices Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor, for a panel as part of the law school’s alumni weekend (video below). During the discussion, the moderator asked the audience if they could guess which of the three justices on the panel served as the inspiration for a coffee house to name one of their blends of coffee, Bold Justice. Justice Alito responded, “Obviously, it’s me.”

He went on to tell the story of how, during his days as a Third Circuit judge, his law clerks participated in a Newark, New Jersey, coffee shop’s year-long promotion wherein if customers sampled every blend for one year, the customers could then create and name a blend of coffee. Justice Alito described Bold Justice as a blend that was “designed for about three o’clock in the afternoon if you’re working and you’re starting to fall asleep, if you have this, it will jolt you awake.” A blend of courts and coffee: sounds perfect to us!

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  1. ↑ [This number does not include Salt River Project v. Solarcity Corp., which the court removed from its docket.
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