Top Law Schools

Who are the most liberal federal judges? Let's talk both district and appellate.

Reinhardt, Fletcher, Rakoff, Katzmann are some of the most prominent

Fletcher, Reinhardt, Berzon, Paez, Pregerson, and Thomas are probably the most liberal of the active judges on the 9th.

Perhaps Harris (4th) and Watford (9th) are also in the discussion.

Cormac Carney (C.D. Cal.) is a badass.

Anonymous User wrote:Perhaps Harris (4th) and Watford (9th) are also in the discussion.

I've never heard Watford referred to as anything other than moderate. And I'm not sure how you can characterize a day old judge who has never heard a case, let alone authored an opinion as 'most liberal'.

hiima3L wrote:Cormac Carney (C.D. Cal.) is a badass.

Definitely a badass, but a registered Republican who isn't particularly liberal on economic or other questions that come before him.

In CA, Judge Karlton (is he senior or now retired?) in E.D. Cal. is quite liberal. I imagine Judge Chhabria will be as well in N.D. Cal., which surprisingly has a lot of moderates but not a ton of out-and-out liberals despite being in SF. And you can't really predict these things, so I'm probably just spouting nonsense.

Jack Weinstein (EDNY) comes to mind.

Agree with above comment re: Watford and especially Harris. What's the evidence of Watford being one of the most liberal federal judges?

Lynn Adelman (E.D. Wis.) and Myron Bright (8th Cir.) come to mind

Anonymous User wrote:Jack Weinstein (EDNY) comes to mind.

Agree with above comment re: Watford and especially Harris. What's the evidence of Watford being one of the most liberal federal judges?

Watford is certainly not one of the most liberal.

I don't even think Watford is one of the 10 most liberal judges on the 9th.

(Also, Nina Pillard is probably going to be really liberal, although this prediction is admittedly premature).

Lucero also comes to mind.

Anonymous User wrote:

hiima3L wrote:Cormac Carney (C.D. Cal.) is a badass.

Definitely a badass, but a registered Republican who isn't particularly liberal on economic or other questions that come before him.

In CA, Judge Karlton (is he senior or now retired?) in E.D. Cal. is quite liberal. I imagine Judge Chhabria will be as well in N.D. Cal., which surprisingly has a lot of moderates but not a ton of out-and-out liberals despite being in SF. And you can't really predict these things, so I'm probably just spouting nonsense.

Huh, I thought J. Carney was a lefty.

J. Karlton is retiring next month, according to Wikipedia.

Anonymous User wrote:In CA, Judge Karlton (is he senior or now retired?) in E.D. Cal. is quite liberal. I imagine Judge Chhabria will be as well in N.D. Cal., which surprisingly has a lot of moderates but not a ton of out-and-out liberals despite being in SF. And you can't really predict these things, so I'm probably just spouting nonsense.

Claudia Wilken in N.D. Cal. is pretty liberal. As is Charles Breyer. There are a fair number of them in the Bay Area.

In the South, Myron Thompson (M.D. Al.) and Keith Ellison (S.D. Tex.) are known for hiring liberal / public-interest students as clerks.

Judge Chen in N.D. Cal. is also very liberal--he was filibustered for years by Republicans. But, of course, very few of the Judges mentioned above are "feeders." Besides Fletcher, Reinhardt and Berzon, there aren't many liberal feeder judges out West.

LegalFiction wrote:Judge Chen in N.D. Cal. is also very liberal--he was filibustered for years by Republicans. But, of course, very few of the Judges mentioned above are "feeders." Besides Fletcher, Reinhardt and Berzon, there aren't many liberal feeder judges out West.

Berzon isn't a feeder; I believe she has sent only clerk to SCOTUS. But Fletcher and Reinhardt are legit feeders, and I think it's fair to say that they're the two most liberal judges with "feeder" status (with Reinhardt clearly to the left of Fletcher).

For what it is worth, a lot of important people (prawfs in the know) believe recently confirmed David Barron is going to be the coveted liberal feeder in the next couple of years. And he undoubtedly will be very liberal (even if restrained for a few years tostay in the running fora scotus nomination.)

Citizen Genet wrote:For what it is worth, a lot of important people (prawfs in the know) believe recently confirmed David Barron is going to be the coveted liberal feeder in the next couple of years. And he undoubtedly will be very liberal (even if restrained for a few years tostay in the running fora scotus nomination.)

According to the anonymous former Supreme Court clerk who did the stickied thread, Srinivasan will be a prominent liberal feeder in the future.

arklaw13 wrote:

Citizen Genet wrote:For what it is worth, a lot of important people (prawfs in the know) believe recently confirmed David Barron is going to be the coveted liberal feeder in the next couple of years. And he undoubtedly will be very liberal (even if restrained for a few years tostay in the running fora scotus nomination.)

According to the anonymous former Supreme Court clerk who did the stickied thread, Srinivasan will be a prominent liberal feeder in the future.

Is already. Check the upcoming terms and you'll see he's placed for the next two.

Citizen Genet wrote:

arklaw13 wrote:

Citizen Genet wrote:For what it is worth, a lot of important people (prawfs in the know) believe recently confirmed David Barron is going to be the coveted liberal feeder in the next couple of years. And he undoubtedly will be very liberal (even if restrained for a few years tostay in the running fora scotus nomination.)

According to the anonymous former Supreme Court clerk who did the stickied thread, Srinivasan will be a prominent liberal feeder in the future.

Is already. Check the upcoming terms and you'll see he's placed for the next two.

Well one clerked for Boudin as well, who is also a feeder. Two Kagan clerks does not a prominent feeder make. Colloton had a couple two terms ago, I think, and hasn't had any since. And one of his also clerked for O'Scannlain. So I wouldn't jump to confirming the anonymous SC clerk just yet, although my best guess is that he is right.

Tatel is both a feeder and liberal

For the record, there's a lot of anon in here that may not be strictly necessary, but I'm not going to out anyone (who's talking about judges and not just using anon to troll), because I realize people are sensitive about commenting on judges on the record, depending on where their info comes from.

In this case you are right as to "why" the post was anonymous. It's a pretty touchy area

No worries. I just put that out there because some people were reporting posts for anon abuse.

Srinivasan's voting record so far hardly qualifies him as a raging liberal. That can be said of virtually all new federal judges, but I really think Srinivasan will be much more like a Garland than a Reinhardt.

I think the commenters are correct that both Srinivasan and Barron will soon be established feeders. I'd guess Srinivasan will be perceived as more moderate and so will feed more broadly (i.e., not just to the Democratic appointees), but this is only speculation.