Judges cut caseloads, 2 federal posts open
Posted on Sunday, October 5, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/239300/
Two new federal judgeships became available last week in the Eastern District of Arkansas with the announcements that two Democratic appointees have taken senior status.
U. S. District Judge Bill Wilson Jr., who was sworn in on Oct. 1, 1993, and U. S. District Judge James Moody, who was sworn in on Sept. 21, 1995, both submitted letters last week to President Bush announcing that they would take advantage of the judicial perk effective Oct. 1.
The Clinton appointees submitted identical letters, each dated Sept. 30, with both saying, “It is my intention to continue to render substantial judicial service as a senior judge beginning Oct. 1.”
Senior status is a form of semiretirement. It is available to federal judges who satisfy the “Rule of 80,” which means that their years of service and their age must total at least 80, as long as they are at least 65 years old and have served at least 10 to 15 years.
Under senior status, judges continue drawing full pay and continue working, but with a reduced caseload. Senior judges who continue to render “substantial service,” which is defined by each federal circuit, are entitled to retain their chambers and staff.
Moody is 68 and has served 13 years, while Wilson is 69 and has served 15 years.
Federal judges are appointed for life, but vacancies are created when they retire from active judicial service, even when they continue working as senior judges.
The replacement process for both full-time judicial positions will begin with nominations by the state’s senior senator or congressman of the same party as the president.
Because there are only three months left for the Bush administration, the nomination process isn’t expected to begin until next year.
U. S. District judges make $ 165, 200 a year.
Wilson, formerly a criminal defense attorney, a plaintiff’s attorney in personal injury cases and a civil defense attorney for corporations, has since early 2002 presided over the desegregation case involving public schools in Pulaski County.
The case began in 1982 and is beginning to wind down. In 2007, Wilson declared the Little Rock school district unitary, or desegregated, and that ruling is now on appeal to the 8 th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. Meanwhile, the North Little Rock and Pulaski County Special school districts have asked Wilson to declare their districts unitary. He has held off on a ruling until the 8 th Circuit decides the appeal of the Little Rock desegregation order.
Wilson also presides over discovery issues for more than 10, 000 individual hormone-therapy lawsuits across the country that are grouped together under the label of a multidistrict litigation case.
A mule farmer and outdoorsman from Scott County, Wilson is a 1962 graduate of Hendrix College in Conway and a 1965 graduate of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. He is married to attorney Cathi Compton, who is in a runoff for a Pulaski County Circuit Court judgeship.
Wilson is known for entertaining litigants and spectators in his courtroom with colorful stories and is quick to let visitors know that he won’t tolerate gum chewing.
Moody, an El Dorado native, is a former partner in the prestigious Wright, Lindsey & Jennings law firm in Little Rock, where he worked for 33 years. As a civil defense attorney, he primarily handled cases involving product liability, professional liability, torts and business.
He earned his bachelor’s degree and his law degree from the University of Arkansas, and is married to the former Lisa Foster, widow of Clinton presidential aide Vince Foster. His son, Jay Moody, is a Pulaski County Circuit Court judge. Moody presided over the 2004 jury trial of a former Pine Bluff alderman, Jack Foster, who was convicted of aiding and abetting an attempted extortion. The case involved a 2003 plot to sell City Council votes on a zoning issue. He also presided over a 2003 jury trial that resulted in an award of about $ 20 million to the survivors of Mary Jane Boerner of North Little Rock, who died of lung cancer. The jury found that a cigarette company, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co., was to blame. The ruling was upheld by the 8 th Circuit, although the appellate court reduced the punitive-damages award from $ 15 million to $ 5 million.