A visiting judge is a judge appointed to hear a case as a member of a court to which he or she does not ordinarily belong. In
United States federal courts
The federal judiciary of the United States is one of the three branches of the federal government of the United States organized under the Constitution of the United States, United States Constitution and Law of the United States, laws of the fed ...
, this is referred to as an assignment "by designation" of the Chief Justice of the United States (for inter-
circuit assignments) or the
Circuit Chief Judge (for intra-circuit assignments), and is authorized by (for active district judges) or (for retired justices and judges).
In many
United States Courts of Appeals
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal judiciary. The courts of appeals are divided into 11 numbered circuits that cover geographic areas of the United States and hear appeals fr ...
it is not uncommon for a
district judge to sit on a panel as a visiting judge; less frequently it is a judge from another circuit (in active service or, more commonly, in
senior status
Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...
). Retired Supreme Court justices have done the same, including Justices
Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26, 1930) is an American retired attorney and politician who served as the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was both the first woman nominated and th ...
and
David Souter
David Hackett Souter ( ; born September 17, 1939) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1990 until his retirement in 2009. Appointed by President George H. W. Bush to fill the seat t ...
, and very unusually, sitting justices (in 1984, for example,
Justice
Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
William Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist ( ; October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American attorney and jurist who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 33 years, first as an associate justice from 1972 to 1986 and then as the 16th chief justice from ...
served as a visiting judge for a
jury trial
A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a Trial, legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or Question of law, findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or Judicial panel, panel of judges makes all decisions.
...
in the
). This is sometimes done to ease caseload pressures, and sometimes (as in Rehnquist's case) for experience.
[ Discussing ]Frank H. Easterbrook
Frank Hoover Easterbrook (born September 3, 1948) is an American lawyer, jurist, and legal scholar who has served as a United States circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit since 1985. He was the Seventh Circuit's chief ...
on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in case citations, 7th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts:
* Central District of Illinois
* Northern District of Il ...
. In other cases, notably those of some judges in senior status, the individual may sit in a different court for personal reasons (such as sitting in areas popular with retirees such as Florida or in a person's hometown).
References
External links
*
Judges
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