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Editorial: Editorial: Playing games with judges’ replacements does public an injustice

Wed., July 15, 2015

There’s a judicial emergency in Idaho, just as there are in 28 other U.S. Circuit and District Court jurisdictions around the country.

Ho-hum.

Foot-dragging on judicial nominees has worn out many a pair of senatorial loafers, but the failure to at least announce nominees to replace U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge shows remarkable indifference to the pace of justice for Idahoans.

Lodge announced in September he would take senior status as of July 3. Idaho’s Republican senators, Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, said in December they were taking applications for the job. Since then, the process has gone underground.

Only questions about the indifference to women applicants – none had been interviewed – flushed out the two, who said they were considering all candidates.

It’s rumored that Crapo and Risch have submitted four names to the White House for consideration. Boise’s Democratic Mayor Dave Bieter has submitted three, but bypassing incumbent senators is a sure nomination-killer. And there’s absolutely no motivation for President Obama to forward any name to the Senate unless he can trade them for prisoners: other nominees awaiting confirmation.

The Senate has confirmed all of four District Court nominees this year, and one Circuit Court judge, hence the emergency declarations by the Judicial Conference of U.S. Courts, the policymaking body chaired by U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.

And despite the fact B. Lynn Winmill is the only full-time judge in the U.S. District Court for Idaho, which triggered the emergency declaration, the conference’s calculation of Idaho caseload per judge, at 451, is low compared to more than 1,200 for one Texas court, and 1,000 at another in California.

Idaho may not have a second judge until 2016. Compare that with the process that put Lodge on the federal bench.

Predecessor Judge Marion J. Callister announced he would go on senior status June 6, 1989. GOP Sen. James McClure forwarded Lodge’s name to the White House, and President George H.W. Bush made the nomination Oct. 30. Lodge won unanimous Senate consent Nov. 21, and he was commissioned Nov. 27.

The Senate was controlled by the Democrats during that period, when partisanship started with a small “p.”

At the end of the George W. Bush presidency, there were only 15 emergencies.

Both parties have played this game in recent years; holding out in the hopes control of the Senate or presidency would also give them control of court nominations. A largely indifferent public cares only when the civil complaints that take a back seat to criminal matters suddenly involve their business or their family.

Despite his complaints, Obama has not moved as quickly as he might to put nominees in play, although there is little incentive for him to do so given their prospects.

Idahoans, meanwhile, will depend on the energy of their one sitting judge, Winmill, supplemented by that of the 81-year-old Lodge, who could not be blamed for calling Crapo and Risch in for jury duty for a long, long trial.