With the recent death of U.S. District Judge Phillip S. Figa, the federal court in Denver is down three judges, and 70 cases have been spread among the rest of the bench.
And the judicial shortage could last awhile before relief arrives.
The Bush administration has been known to take its time before awarding lifetime appointments, and Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., hasn’t submitted names for President Bush’s consideration.
Allard and Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., declined to say who they believe should fill the positions.
“The senator has been working with Sen. Salazar to provide the president with some suggestions for replacing these vacancies,” said Allard spokesman Steve Wymer. “The names and process are typically confidential and the senator will maintain that precedent.”
Figa’s death and two judgeships created by Congress to deal with an already overcrowded docket make up the three vacancies. The judge had battled cancer for months.
“We had not been giving him new assignments since he became ill,” said Gregory Langham, clerk of Colorado’s U.S. District Court. “He continued to work on his cases throughout his illness and only had about 70 cases left on his pending caseload.”
Langham said fewer judges mean the remaining nine district judges have more work to deal with, and he wasn’t sure how long it will take to confirm the nominations for the openings once they are made. In the meantime, should the openings drag on, senior judges and possibly visiting judges could be called upon to help.
Allard, as Colorado’s senior senator, will submit a list of three names per judgeship for Bush’s consideration. Usually, the White House and officials from the U.S. Department of Justice check backgrounds and conduct interviews before the names are forwarded to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for confirmation proceedings.
The process for selecting Colorado’s U.S. Attorney Troy Eid — an appointment that does not last a lifetime — took more than a year. Eid and another candidate had dropped out of the running before the selection was made because of the impact of the delay on their existing jobs.
Selecting and confirming federal judges has become increasingly political since the 1980s, leading to delays mostly in the higher circuit courts.
“Generally, the fights occur at the court of appeals more than district courts because they make judicial policy and they establish precedents,” said Russell Wheeler, visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
Even after being nominated, the process can bog down. District judges waited on average only a month and half for confirmation in the 1950s, but now wait more than four months, according to Wheeler’s research.
Since 1990, district judgeships in Colorado took four months on average from nomination to confirmation by the Senate, according to the Federal Judicial Center, an agency and education center for the federal courts.
The last judge to receive confirmation in a month’s time was Chief Judge Edward W. Nottingham, who was appointed by the first President Bush in 1989.
Figa’s confirmation in 2003 took four months.
An election-year confirmation could delay the process even more, but if the names are submitted now, there may be enough time for confirmation by June or July, Wheeler said.
“If the administration nominates candidates that Salazar and Allard endorse, the chances the Senate will move them are fairly good,” he said.
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
