Recently in People and Events Category

Chief Justice John Roberts named eight judges as new committee chairs for the Judicial Conference this week, and extended the service of three judges as committee chairs.

Among the eight new chairs, Justice Roberts appointed Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John Rogers as the new chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct. Judge Rogers, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, has served on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals since 2002.

The other new committee chairs are:

Chief Justice Alice Moor Batchelder of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals was one of only six women in her graduating class at Akron University School of Law in 1971.

Now, she sits as the Chief Justice of a federal appeals court. And she might almost have been a U.S. Supreme Court nominee, once.

Batchelder came into the spotlight in 2005, as her name was thrown around as a potential replacement for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

If a Federal Judge belongs to an all-white, all-male club, is it an issue? Is he partaking in racial discrimination?

Now, let's throw in the fact that this is no small club. It has 600 voting members, all white males.

Does that change things?

Well, according to The New York Times, a 10-8 decision of the Judicial Council of the Sixth Circuit allowed Judge George C. Paine II to keep his membership in the Belle Meade Country Club in Nashville.

An anonymous ethics complaint was filed last year against Judge George Paine, citing his membership in such a club. While the complaint was eventually dismissed by the Judicial Council, there were four separate dissents filed in the case, writes The Associated Press.