Norton Bill to Return D.C. Superior Court to Full Functioning Capacity - April 6, 2006

Norton Bill to Return D.C. Superior Court to Full Functioning Capacity
April 6, 2006

Washington, DC—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a bill to increase the number of D.C. Superior Court judges to a figure necessary for the court to function as Congress intended. The Norton bill, which is the companion bill to S. 2068, introduced by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), will increase the number of Superior Court judges by three to 61, to eliminate a temporary decrease created by Congress almost two years ago to allow the Family Court Division to have a full complement of 15 judges. Federal law requires that judges of the Superior Court, the trial court of jurisdiction for non-family criminal and civil matters, and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to be nominated by the President and approved by the Senate. After the establishment of the new Family Court Division, which falls under Superior Court, the Superior Court was temporarily increased by three judges in order to assist the transition because Congress wanted to assure a full complement of family court judges. However, no permanent authorization reflecting the changes was approved. Consequently, as judges have retired or otherwise moved on, the President has continued to make nominations to fill each judge’s seat. With no authorization for the necessary number of judges, an unintended anomaly has resulted in presidential nominations but no actual vacancies because the court is short three judges. To meet the caseload, Superior Court has been forced to use senior or retired judges inappropriately, even though they take cases and perform other duties at their discretion.

“Congressman Tom DeLay (R-TX) and I continue to be proud of the reform in our bill that created a new Family Court Division,” Norton said. “The significant increase in Family Court judges is a good indication that Congress did not intend to rob Peter to pay Paul. However, that is what has happened and this anomaly needs to be corrected.”

Because of this anomaly, people nominated by the President can wait for 15 to 18 months before there is a vacancy; and lawyers are increasingly unwilling to give up their practices to apply for judgeships on the Superior Court because of the long delay in being seated.

Norton said, “It should never be the case that senior judges perform an important regular and vital function of the court for years at a time. We are asking Congress to remedy this problem in the D.C. court system that results entirely from congressional action.