Nate Raymond, Reuters; US judges cleared of ethics breach for halting retirements after Trump election
"Three federal judges who rescinded their decisions to retire from active service on the bench after President Donald Trump was elected, thus depriving him of vacancies he could fill, did not violate judicial ethics rules, a chief federal appellate judge has concluded.
Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Debra Ann Livingston in three recently released opinions dismissed misconduct complaints filed against U.S. Circuit Judge James Wynn and two district court judges who had backtracked on their decisions to leave active service before Trump returned to office in January...
Livingston, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, called the three judges' actions "unusual and unfortunate," given how the rescission of a retirement can render efforts in the White House and Congress to nominate new judges to fill their seats "a waste."
But she said no judicial ethics rule dictated when or whether federal judges, who under the U.S. Constitution are granted life tenure should or must retire. Such decisions, she said, are "discretionary and personal to the judge."
"The timing of a judge’s decision either to assume senior status or to reconsider that decision, does not, without more, raise an inference of misconduct," Livingston wrote."
