Putting justice at risk

So many openings on judicial bench inexcusable

It took more than three years to turn the nominations into actual appointments, but, finally, two respected jurists have been confirmed for seats on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Butler County Common Pleas Judge Marilyn Horan was confirmed by the Senate on Sept. 6. And, on Aug. 28, Susan Paradise Baxter, a U.S. magistrate judge in Erie, was confirmed.

It’s about time. It actually was past time.

Both judges had bipartisan support. Each initially was nominated by President Barack Obama and each was renominated by President Donald Trump. Each also had the backing of both Pennsylvania senators: Pat Toomey, a Republican, and Bob Casey, a Democrat. Still, it took years to get it done. Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who tracks judicial vacancies, called both judges well-qualified, mainstream jurists with “tons of experience.”

Even after both confirmations, four of the 10 seats on the Western District bench remain unfilled. And judicial vacancies abound across the U.S. As of Sept. 23, there were 142 unfilled seats in the federal judiciary with 72 nominations pending.

The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, in an analysis of judicial vacancies on federal trial courts, concluded that cases will languish for years, that some case participants will settle just to avoid the interruption to their lives and overworked jurists may not be dispensing the highest quality justice. Furthermore, where is the incentive for the best judicial minds to put their lives on hold — potentially for years — as they await confirmation following nomination?

The Senate made an important advance in recent weeks with the confirmations of Judges Horan and Baxter. More work lies ahead:

In May, Peter Phipps cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee, meaning that full Senate confirmation is the barrier between filling another vacancy on the federal bench of the Western District. As with Judges Horan and Baxter, Mr. Phipps has the support of both senators, Mr. Toomey and Mr. Casey. For the past 14 years, he has served as senior trial counsel in the Federal Programs Branch of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division in Pittsburgh and Washington D.C.

Also, in July, Mr. Trump tapped Nicholas Ranjan, an equity partner in the Pittsburgh office of K&L Gates, to serve on the Western District bench. Again, the nominee has the support of Pennsylvania’s senators. Yet, a confirmation vote is nowhere on the horizon.

The remaining two vacancies on the Western District bench are without nominees.

With partisan wrangling and competing ideologies, government gridlock has come to be expected and accepted. But where there is bipartisan support and no discernible disagreement as to qualification, there is no reason for judicial vacancies to persist. They are not just holes on a judicial bench; they are holes in the Constitutional guarantee of equal justice for all.