2013-042 Requesting our US Senators to forward to President Obama a bi-partisan slate of qualified judicial nominees to fill the vacant federal judge position in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division with preferenc

Home Browse Search

with each passing day adding more cases to a crushing docket, corresponding delay in criminal and civil cases, and risk of denying Americans of average means access to our federal courts; • The ordinary judicial duties to serve the Federal Court sitting at Sherman are routinely filled by two Federal District Judges driving 344 miles from Beaumont to Sherman to tend the docket, while balancing calls for their time in their assigned place of service in Beaumont, with other judges occasionally being called from their duty stations in Texarkana and Tyler; • On June 13, 2003, the judges of the Eastern District recognized the urgency of the circumstance when they passed a resolution calling for the next appointment of an Eastern District Judge to be expressly for the Sherman Division, reflected in the attached Exhibit "A "; • On November 19, 2003, the United States Congress considered legislation designated as S. 1720 to effectuate the substance of the above resolution, in the course of which consideration the Congressional Record evidences support for same by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, Congressman Sam Johnson, and Congressman Hall, assuring Sherman as a place of court with a resident federal judge, as reflected in the attached Exhibit "B;" • On December 3, 2003, that measure was signed into law by President George W. Bush as Public Law No. 108 -157; • Despite the District Judges' resolution and the subsequent enactment of Public Law No. 108 -157, the next appointment of an Eastern District Judge was designated for the Marshall Division, continuing Sherman without a resident federal judge, further underscoring the need for this appointment; • Once by Grayson Bar Association resolution on May 11, 2011, and again by letter dated September 28, 2011, the Grayson Bar Association requested relief from President Barack Obama, with the assistance of our Senators, as reflected in the attached Exhibit "C • The Administrative Office of the United States Courts has since declared the vacancy left by Judge Brown as one of the nation's most pressing "Judicial Emergencies," reflected in the attached Exhibit "D "; • The Hon. Richard A. Schell, the only other resident district judge in the Sherman Division of the Eastern District of Texas, but sitting in Plano, has indicated his intention to take senior status in March of 2015, further underscoring the urgency of filling the Sherman court vacancy left by Hon. Paul Brown;