The Court of International Trade will be closed Friday, Nov. 24, the day after Thanksgiving in addition to Thanksgiving. Judge Mark Barnett issued the order, noting it will "be observed as a holiday" by the court.
The Judicial Council of the Federal Circuit in a Sept. 20 order affirmed a three-judge panel's suggestion that Judge Pauline Newman shouldn't be assigned new cases for one year due to her efforts to impede the probe into her fitness to continue serving on the bench. The council said the evidence "amply justified" an order subjecting Newman to a medical examination and that her refusal to comply, among other things, thwarted the council's ability to decide whether she "has a disability that renders her unable to perform the duties of her important office."
President Joe Biden's two nominees for the Court of International Trade advanced to a vote before the full Senate following Sept. 14 votes in the Senate Judiciary Committee (see 2309120040). The nominees, Lisa Wang, assistant secretary of commerce for enforcement and compliance, and Joseph Laroski, partner at Schagrin Associates, passed the committee on votes of 12-9 and 18-3, respectively. All "Nay" votes for both candidates were cast by Republicans.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on two nominations to the Court of International Trade during its Sept. 14 executive business meeting. The two nominees are Lisa Wang, assistant secretary of commerce for enforcement and compliance at the Commerce Department, and Joseph Laroski, partner at Schagrin Associates. The pair faced questioning from the committee in July, where the senators asked about their backgrounds and how their past experiences will shape their decision-making (see 2307270043).
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Beryl Howell will take senior status on Feb. 1, 2024, opening a vacancy on the federal court, the U.S. Courts website revealed. Howell was appointed to the court in 2010, prior to which she clerked for Judge Dickinson Debevoise in the District of New Jersey and was an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. She also worked as the general counsel of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary and as commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
The U.S. Lumber Coalition -- the petitioner in the fourth review of the antidumping duty order on lumber from Canada -- welcomed the Canadian government's stated intent to appeal the review results to the Court of International Trade. The judicial appeal is a "welcome change" in Ottawa's approach to the case because the nation "traditionally insists on requesting a United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement panel for their appeals," the coalition said.
President Joe Biden on Aug. 30 announced four new nominations to federal district courts as part of his seventh round of judicial nominations. Colleen Holland, special counsel to Judge Elizabeth Wolford at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, was nominated to the same New York court. Judge John Kazen, current magistrate judge for the Southern District of Texas, was nominated to the same Texas court. Micah Smith, assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Hawaii, was nominated for the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. Ramona Manglona, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, was nominated for the same court.
The U.S. removed sanctions from two former board members of a Russian state-owned bank after both argued they didn’t meet the criteria for placement on the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals List. The sanctions removals, made by the Office of Foreign Assets Control late last month, came after Russian nationals Elena Titova and Andrey Golikov, in separate complaints, sued the U.S. government over their designations, accusing it of sanctioning them on “no factual basis” and “unnecessarily” delaying delisting decisions.
Members of the trade bar interested in joining the Court of International Trade's Rules Advisory Committee should submit letters expressing that interest by Sept. 8, the court announced. The committee considers the court's rules and makes recommendations about potential changes in line with the "Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the statutes impacting the Court’s jurisdiction, and other developments that may affect the work of the Court." The group meets four times a year, alternating between New York City and Washington, D.C., and also meets in smaller groups as needed.
President Joe Biden's two nominees to fill vacancies at the Court of International Trade, Schagrin Associates' Joseph Laroski and the Commerce Department's Lisa Wang (see 2307120021), went before the Senate Judiciary Committee during a hearing on July 26. The two nominees faced questioning from the senators, including inquiries into their backgrounds and how their past experiences will shape their decision-making on the bench.