A U.S. district court in California faces "judicial catastrophe" without two more judges, says retiring Chief Judge Lawrence O'Neill.
WASHINGTON ― It’s not often that a federal judge pleads with the White House and senators to fill vacancies on his or her court. But in the case of U.S. District Judge Lawrence O’Neill, his court’s workload has become so unmanageable that it’s come to begging for help.
O’Neill, who is the chief judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, said his court is about to lose the equivalent of one-third of its district judges to retirement in the next three months. Each of the court’s six district judges handles roughly 900 cases at any given time. That’s more than double the national average caseload for district judges, which is 425 cases.
The White House, which routinely announces its intent to nominate people to various federal court seats, has not indicated plans to nominate anyone to this court. Typically, the White House works with both of a state’s U.S. senators to pick judicial nominees. President Donald Trump has ignored that tradition with appeals court nominees but mostly stuck to it with district court picks.
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