Bradley Garcia, current deputy assistant attorney general for DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel, was confirmed May 15 by the U.S. Senate to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The 53-40 vote was largely along party lines, save for the Yea votes of Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala. Garcia is the first Latino judge on the court, and at 36 years old, the youngest circuit court nominee confirmed under President Joe Biden. Garcia, formerly a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, is the Senate's fourth confirmation of a Biden pick for the court.
The Judicial Conference's Executive Committee is ending the COVID-19 emergency, effective May 24. Saying COVID no longer affects the functioning of the federal courts, it implemented a 120-day grace period -- May 24 to Sept. 21 -- during which federal courts can continue to provide remote public audio access to civil and bankruptcy proceedings. The grace period relates only to these types of proceedings, it said May 11. Permission to carry out certain criminal proceedings remotely ended May 10.
The Court of International Trade said the pay.gov system will undergo maintenance 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. EDT May 20. During this time, documents requiring payment via this site cannot be filed on CM/ECF.
President Joe Biden nominated U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Judge Loren AliKhan to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Her experience also includes serving as solicitor general for D.C. from 2018 to 2022 and as deputy solicitor general from 2013 to 2017. She would be the first South Asian woman to serve on the court and the only active Asian American/Pacific Islander female judge on the court, the White House said. The president announced the move along with two other judicial nominations, bringing the total number of announced nominees to 167.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman retained the New Civil Liberties Alliance as counsel in the investigation of her ability to continue serving on the court. The alliance wrote a letter to Chief Judge Kimberly Moore, the judge who brought the case against Newman, requesting that the proceeding be transferred to another circuit and that Newman be fully restored to the court's calendar.
The two judicial vacancies at The Court of International Trade are unduly burdening the court, The Customs & International Trade Bar Association said in an April 20 letter to White House Counsel Stuart Delery. The letter urged President Joe Biden to quickly nominate judges for the two outstanding vacancies.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on April 14 confirmed that a three-judge special committee is looking into a complaint against Judge Pauline Newman's ability to continue serving on the court. Judge Kimberly Moore brought the complaint against Newman, 95, after alleging probable cause she carried out "conduct prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts" and is unable to perform her duties due to a "mental or physical disability."
The Court of International Trade approved fees for a three-day transcript rate and per-feed rates for real-time transcripts, the court announced. Per the transcript order form, a three-day transcript will cost $5.45 per page for the original and $1.05 per copy to each party and $0.75 to each additional copy to the same party. The realtime transcript will cost $3.95 per page for one feed, $2.10 per page for two to four feeds and $1.50 per page for five or more feeds.
The Court of International Trade announced the conclusion of its Audio Streaming Pilot Program, which concluded Feb. 14. It said that after March 31, audio recordings of proceedings before CIT will not be available on the court's YouTube channel.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's CM/ECF electronic filing system will be unavailable starting April 7 at 6 p.m. EST and continuing through April 9 at 6 p.m. EST due to "an extended maintenance window," the court said. Filers should avoid trying to file new documents during this time, though the system "may be available for intermittent accessing of documents."