PERHAPS the biggest decision Donald Trump faces in January is his choice of nominee for the Supreme Court. But the president-elect will have many more opportunities to make his mark on the judiciary. When Mr Trump takes office on January 20th, he will have over 100 vacant or soon-to-be vacant positions to fill in lower federal courts: 96 judgeships in district courts and 16 on the nation’s circuit courts. That accounts for about 1 in 7 seats in America’s 94 district courts and nearly 1 in 10 in the 13 powerful circuit courts that review district-court rulings. While the Supreme Court decides roughly 65 cases each term, lower courts handle tens of thousands of cases a year directly affecting millions of Americans' lives.
The unheralded but important role of the district-court judge was the theme of Chief Justice John Roberts’ end-of-year report on December 31st. “The men and women across the country who today serve as district judges”, he wrote, “are generally not well known” but “deserve tremendous respect”. Though it is typically the Supreme Court that is “the focus of public attention”, Mr Roberts observed, America’s “system of justice depends...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2i6uWN1
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