Colorado Judge Raymond P. Moore Announces Retirement

U.S. District Court Judge Raymond P. Moore has announced his intention to transition to senior status on Colorado’s federal trial court; this form of retirement means that the 2013 Obama administration appointee will now handle cases part time.

Judge Moore’s transition to senior status is the fifth judicial retirement within the past couple of years, leaving yet another spot for sitting President Joe Biden to fill nationwide. This vacancy and Moore’s decision have ultimately raised some concerned points. In June, Bloomberg Law reported that, if republicans seize the majority in the chamber in the upcoming elections, there is a high likelihood that they will curtail the confirmation of Biden’s appointees. The democratic party, and Biden himself, are no stranger to this tactic, as the same strategy was put in place by the republican majority during Barack Obama’s two-term presidency.

There is a way that Biden can appoint judges who he truly believes will serve for the betterment of our nation, but it comes with a need to do a bit of bargaining.

John P. Collins Jr., a visiting associate professor at The George Washington University Law School, suggests that centrist President Biden should appoint one republican-approved justice while making his own selection for another. Collins Jr. says this could act as a way of bargaining with the prospective republican majority.

There could also be “a trade for more conservative nominees in red states,” he says. In the meantime, Colorado Senators Michael Bennett and John Hickenlooper have already submitted their preferred applicants for the judicial position in their state: U.S. Magistrate Judges S. Kato Crews and Gordon P. Gallagher and private attorney Sundeep K. “Rob” Addy.

These two nominees were originally intended to follow in succession for U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martínez, and now another selection needs to be made to succeed Raymond P. Moore.