Recently in Court News Category

Big news from the Senate this week: Stephanie Dawn Thacker has been confirmed as a judge for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, writes The Hill.

Thacker was nominated by President Barack Obama in September 2011 to fill the vacancy left by the death of Judge M. Blane Michael earlier that year. She was nominated upon recommendation by Senator Jay Rockefeller, who praised her humility and intellectual honesty this week at her confirmation.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in a special sitting at the North Carolina Central University (NCCU) Law School in Durham, N.C. on March 23, 2012.

The court will hear three cases during the NCCU Law session in March.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals will hold oral arguments at the University of Virginia (UVA) Law School Caplin Auditorium on March 23, 2012. A Fourth Circuit panel holds an appellate argument session at the University every three years.

The court will hear four cases during the special session in March.

New York Times reporter James Risen is getting support from fellow journalists in his reporter's privilege claim to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

This week, First Amendment lawyers Lee Levine and Jeanette Bead filed an amicus brief supporting Risen, reports Politico.

Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Stephanie Thacker is one step closer to being confirmed for a seat on the bench. The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved Thacker’s nomination on Thursday.

President Barack Obama nominated Thacker to the Fourth Circuit in early September, so her nomination is proceeding quickly.

Thacker’s home state senator, Jay Rockefeller, firmly supports her nomination.

Liberty University is the latest plaintiff to file an individual mandate appeal with the Supreme Court. The conservative school, founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell, filed the appeal on Monday.

Liberty University Attorney Mathew Staver expects the court to decide whether to consider the case before it takes its December break, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Liberty University’s individual mandate challenge in September. Liberty argued that the penalties to be assessed for non-compliance with the Affordable Care Act were unconstitutional; the court found that individual mandate penalties could not be reviewed under the Anti-Injunction Act (AIA) because penalties are a type of tax that cannot be attacked through pre-enforcement.

U.S. District Judge Henry Floyd was confirmed to a seat on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals by a 96-0 vote on Tuesday.

Floyd is a rare judge who has served in all three branches of government. While in law school at the University of South Carolina, Floyd was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives, where he served until 1978. From 1979 through 1991, Floyd was Commissioner on the South Carolina Forestry Commission. During that time, Floyd also had law practice and served as counsel for Pickens County.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cucinelli isn’t giving up on his Affordable Care Act challenge quite yet.

After the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found that 26 state plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the Act, Cucinelli, better known to healthcare reform watchers as the driving force behind one of the two individual mandate lawsuits the Fourth Circuit rejected in September, asked the Supreme Court to examine the standing ruling.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a nomination hearing for Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Stephanie Thacker. Thacker will appear before the committee on Tuesday, October 4 at 3 p.m.

The Senate scheduled Thacker’s hearing relatively quickly. Unlike some of her peers who have toiled in appellate nominee purgatory for over a year, President Obama nominated Thacker for the bench only three weeks ago.

The Judicial Conference of the United States recently adopted a new court fee schedule in response to inflationary expenses. It is the first increase in court filing fees in eight years. Fee increases will become effective November 1, 2011.

The income the Judiciary receives through miscellaneous fees allows it to reduce its annual appropriations request to Congress. Fees in appeals, district, and bankruptcy courts are affected, and expected to result in an estimated $10.5 million in additional fee revenue for fiscal year 2012. The new Miscellaneous Fee Schedule is available here.