New Judge Gives 4th Circuit a Majority of GOP Appointees
G. Steven Agee’s new seat on the Richmond, Va., 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gives the influential court a majority of GOP-appointed judges. But don’t expect a decisive tilt to the right.
Agee was sworn in earlier this month, ending a 5-5 split between Republican and Democratic appointees, the Washington Post reports. Before Agee was sworn in, the court had five empty seats, more than any other federal appeals court, the ABA Journal reported in the June feature, “Logjam.”
“With the circuit’s ideological direction hanging in the balance, there’s been near-paralysis in Washington,” the ABA Journal reported. “The president has nominated reliably conservative lawyers to fill most of the vacancies, and the Democrat-controlled Senate has failed to act on most of the nominations.”
Agee was a Virginia Supreme Court justice and is known as a moderate conservative, the Post article says. University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias told the newspaper he doesn’t think the appointment will return the 4th Circuit to its former reputation of being the most conservative court in the country.
