Anonymous User wrote: ↑Sun Jan 29, 2023 12:54 pm
Any word (or speculation) on whether the remaining active Clinton appointees (Wardlaw, Gould, Rawlinson) will go senior in the next few years, before the Senate switches hands in 2024?
Even more of a shot in the dark, but any rumored candidates for who might replace them if they do? Same question for who might replace Watford as well, when he steps down in June.
Rawlinson seems unlikely - she publicly stated that she would go senior if Biden nominated one of her clerks and it doesn't seem like the administration wants to set a precedent of letting judges pick their successors.
I think folks were discussing Gould on another thread and think it's also not very likely. Something about Gould not wanting to be seen as retiring because of his disability? Going senior isn't really retiring so sounds like no one really knows. Any of the Biden judges confirmed to WDWA could be candidates for his successor - I could see either Tiffany Cartwright (young, civil rights litigator, former B. Fletcher clerk), Lauren King (young, first Native COA judge), or Jamal Whitehead (worked at EEOC, mostly seems to represent plaintiffs in employment cases, black man when CA9 will have no black male judges post-Watford, has a disability). The Biden nominees to WDWA have been great, so I really hope Gould goes senior soon so one of them can join CA9.
Wardlaw is the one that I thought would go senior already (and don't know why she hasn't). She's reliably liberal and is the most senior active judge at this point, and she doesn't seem like the type of judge who thinks they're a gift to humanity and won't go senior because of pride/vanity. She seems like somebody the administration should be calling/lobbying to go senior.
Lots of options for the Wardlaw seat (if it opens) or the Watford seat - my guess is that one of the Biden nominees to CDCA would be elevated since both are SoCal-based seats. Frimpong and Sunshine Sykes seem the most likely for Watford's seat (especially since Sykes would also be the first Native COA judge if King in WDWA isn't elevated before then), but Vera or Almadani could also be likely once they are confirmed to the district court. Also totally possible that the administration doesn't elevate a district judge at all and goes with someone else just because there's so many possibilities.