Third Circuit Federal Courts 2023

Continuing our review of the Federal Circuit Courts: 

The Third Circuit Federal Court is comprised of six districts covering three states and one territory.  New Jersey is the largest District Court with 17 judges to serve an undivided state.  

Based on the population to judge ratio it would seem that the U.S. Virgin Islands is a hotbed of Federal criminality!  In general, the ratios and therefore the workloads across these Districts vary widely.  The average number of judges in District Courts is just north of 4.  Eastern Pennsylvania, with 22 seats is the 4th largest District after: 1) Central California (Los Angeles), Southern New York (New York City), and Northern Illinois (Chicago).  Eastern Pennsylvania is anchored by Philadelphia.

I know--we ALL know--judges are supposed to be impartial; and yet, this very day, we learn of how the wife of our United States Supreme Court Chief Justice earned hundreds of thousands of dollars pushing lawyers toward firms that would later argue cases before her husband--and we are to believe that there was NEVER a conversation between them about any of these people?  Connecting the dots, their success before the court directly impacted her financial gain.  

So now that we've dispelled that old chestnut, it is in the third circuit that you see the lingering effects of President Trumps appointees.  Most specifically in Western Pennsylvania; however, this is tempered by the fact that the first to T's are judges that were actually nominated by President Obama, and then had their nomination returned by Mitch McConnell -- oops, I mean Donald Trump at the beginning of his first year in office.  This brief moment of detente included a nominee for the District Court of Rhode Island and a nominee for the District Court of Maryland--ALL women.

New Jersey is another story.  For the 4 years of the Trump administration, not a single nominee was proposed.  None of the candidates offered by the states senators: Menendez and Booker were deemed acceptable.

Gender parity in the Third Circuit still favors men 58% to 42%.  Even if President Biden were to fill the three empty seats with women, the ratio would only shift 56% to 44%.

When you breakdown the Racial/Ethnic demographics, it looks like this:  1) The White population in general in the circuit is 72% and on the courts it's 66%, 2) The Black population in general in the circuit is 13% and on the courts it's 19%, 2) The Hispanic population in general in the circuit is 9% and on the courts it's 13%, 2) The Asian population in general in the circuit is 6% and on the courts it's 3%.  The percentage of Black Judges is a bit elevated by the inclusion of the Unites States Virgin Islands.