Chief Justice rejects probe of judge's retirement

摘要

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts last week rejected a request to investigate the retirement of a judge from a prominent appeals court. The high court's top jurist said Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had failed to conduct a proper inquiry in response to a judicial reform group's request for a probe of the circumstances that led a moderate, Republican-nominated judge to step down from the circuit this fall. The announcement of D.C. Circuit Judge Thomas Griffith's retirement roughly coincided with news that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had been pushing veteran judges to step down so that President Trump could select younger replacements. The Senate Judiciary Committee last week considered U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky Judge Justin Walker, 37, for Griffith's seat (E&E Daily, May 7). Earlier this month, Srinivasan issued an order requesting transfer of the matter to the judicial council of another appeals court. He noted the issues involved in Demand Justice's request for an investigation were "highly visible" and could "weaken public confidence in the process." "Here, the questions posited by the organization in the correspondence about the possibility of judicial misconduct have been reported in various major news outlets," Srinivasan wrote. News of McConnell's efforts to push out seasoned judges was first reported by The New York Times.