United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington

	Eastern District of Washington
	Ninth Circuit
	;
	Active judges
	Rice • Suko
	Senior Judges
	Nielsen • Quackenbush • Shea • Van Sickle • Whaley
	Magistrate Judges
	Imbrogno • Hutton
	Former Judges

	Eastern District of Washington
	Ninth Circuit
	;
	Active judges
	Rice • Suko
	Senior Judges
	Nielsen • Quackenbush • Shea • Van Sickle • Whaley
	Magistrate Judges
	Imbrogno • Hutton
	Former Judges

From Judgepedia

Jump to: navigation, search

[edit]

Court
Judges

Share this Court:

Key:
(Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.)
0%	0%-10%
10%-25%	25%-40%
More than 40%

Contents

1 Court
1.1 Vacancy warning level
1.2 Jurisdiction
1.2.1 Cases heard
1.2.2 Case load
1.3 Clerk's office
1.4 History
1.4.1 Court history
1.4.2 Judicial posts
1.4.3 Notable decisions
1.4.4 Federal courthouse
1.5 Major news
1.6 See also
1.7 External links
1.8 References
2 Judges

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington is the United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties: Adams, Asotin, Benton, Chelan, Columbia, Douglas, Ferry, Franklin, Garfield, Grant, Kittitas, Klickitat, Lincoln, Okanogan, Pend Oreille, Spokane, Stevens, Walla Walla, Whitman, and Yakima. It has jurisdiction over the cities of Richland, Spokane, and Yakima.

When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals based in downtown San Francisco at the James R. Browning Federal Courthouse, but hears initial appeals at the Pioneer Federal Courthouse in Portland, OR.

Vacancy warning level

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington's vacancy warning level is currently set at yellow. The court currently has one vacancy out of their 4 posts, constituting 25% of their seats. There are no pending appointments for the district.

Jurisdiction

The Counties of the Eastern District of Washington (click for larger map)

The geographic jurisdiction of the Eastern District of Washington consists of all the following counties in the eastern part of the state of Washington. The court's headquarters are in Spokane, with courthouses in Yakima and Richland.

When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals based in downtown San Francisco at the James R. Browning Federal Courthouse, but hears initial appeals at the Pioneer Federal Courthouse in Portland, OR.

Cases heard

The Eastern District of Washington has original jurisdiction over cases filed within its jurisdiction. These cases can include civil and criminal matters that fall under federal law.

Case load

Federal Court Case Load Statistics^*

Year	Starting case load:	Cases filed:	Total cases:	Cases terminated:	Remaining cases:	Median time(Criminal)^**:	Median time(Civil)^**:	3 Year Civil cases^#:	Vacant posts:^##	Trials/Post
2010	847	1621	2468	1494	974	8.1	10.3	35(5.1%)	15.8	19
2009	845	1534	2379	1526	853	8.7	8.9	34(5.7%)	14.6	22
2008	833	1462	2295	1471	824	9.2	8.1	45(8.2%)	5.0	25
2007	878	1253	2131	1272	859	7.4	8.1	34(6.1%)	.0	23
2006	956	1276	2232	1301	931	8.3	8.1	34(5.9%)	.0	31

^*All statistics are taken from the Official Federal Courts' Website and reflect the calendar year through September. ^**Time in months from filing to completion.
^#This statistic includes cases which have been appealed in higher courts. ^##This is the total number of months that any all judicial posts had spent vacant that year.

Clerk's office

The Eastern District of Washington has three separate courthouses. The Clerk's office is open Monday through Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm, excluding Federal holidays. Please consult the chart below for more information:

Branch	Address	Mailing Address	Phone number
Spokane Division Thomas S. Foley United States Courthouse	Eighth Floor, Rm 840 W. 920 Riverside Ave Spokane, WA		(509) 458-3400
Yakima Division	25 S. 3rd St Second Floor Yakima, WA	US District Court PO Box 2706 Yakima, WA 98907	(509) 575-5838
Richland Division	Room 174 - U.S. Courthouse 825 Jadwin Avenue Richland, WA	US District Court 825 Jadwin Avenue, Room 174 Richland, WA 99352	(509) 943-8170

^[1]

History

Court history

The state of Washington was established by Congress as one judicial district on April 5, 1890 with one post to cover the entire state and it was assigned over to the Ninth Circuit. On March 2, 1905, the state of Washington was divided into two judicial districts, the Eastern District and the Western District, with a post assigned to each. The post existing before the division was assigned over to the Western District. Over time 3 additional judicial posts were added for a total of 4 current posts.^[2]

Judicial posts

The following table highlights the development of judicial posts for the Eastern District of Washington:

Year	Statute	Total Seats
April 5, 1890	26 Stat. 45	1
March 2, 1905	33 Stat. 824	1
January 20, 1940	63 Stat. 493	1
May 19, 1961	75 Stat. 80	1
October 20, 1978	92 Stat. 1629	2
July 10, 1984	98 Stat. 333	3
December 1, 1990	104 Stat. 5089	4

^[2]

Notable cases

This page is missing notable case information.

For a searchable list of opinions, please see Justia.com Dockets and Filings.

Federal courthouse

Three separate courthouses serve the Eastern District of Washington.

Major news

For new stories and other related material see Washington judicial news.

External links

References

↑ Court Clerk Information(Select the appropriate division for info and map)
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 FJC History of the Eastern District of Washington

Share this Court:

Key:
(Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.)
0%	0%-10%
10%-25%	25%-40%
More than 40%

Contents

1 Court
2 Judges
2.1 Active Judges
2.1.1 Article III judges
2.1.2 Pending appointments
2.1.3 Senior judges
2.2 Past judges
2.2.1 Former Chief judges
2.2.2 Former judges

Active judges

Article III judges

See: Article III federal judge
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington has 4 posts and 1 vacancy. The current Chief Judge is Rosanna Peterson. This is a list of the current judges on the court:

Judge	Born	Home	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Preceeded	Bachelors	Law
Judge Lonny Suko	1943	Spokane, WA	W. Bush	7/16/2003 - Present	2009 - 2011	William Nielsen	Washington State U., B.A., 1965	U. of Idaho College of Law, J.D., 1968
Chief Judge Rosanna Peterson	1951	Salt Lake City, Utah	Obama	1/26/2010 - Present	2011 - Present	Frederick Van Sickle	U. of North Dakota School, B.A., 1977	U. of North Dakota School of Law, J.D., 1991
Judge Thomas Rice	1960	Spokane, WA	Obama	3/6/2012 - Present		Robert Whaley	Gonzaga U., B.B.A., 1983	Gonzaga U. Law, J.D., 1983

Pending appointments

There are no current pending appointments for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.

Senior judges

See: Federal judges on senior status
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington has 5 judges on senior status currently. This is a list of the current senior judges on the court:

Judge	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Senior	Bachelors	Law
Senior Judge Robert Whaley	Clinton	6/30/1995 - 7/12/2009	2005 - 2009	7/12/2009 - Present	Princeton U., A.B., 1965	Emory U. School of Law, J.D., 1968
Senior Judge Justin Quackenbush	Carter	6/18/1980 - 6/27/1995	1989 - 1995	6/27/1995 - Present	U. of Idaho, B.A., 1951	Gonzaga U. School of Law, LL.B., 1957
Senior Judge William Nielsen	H.W. Bush	5/14/1991 - 5/30/2003	1995 - 2000	5/30/2003 - Present	U. of Washington, B.A., 1956	U. of Washington School of Law, LL.B., 1962
Senior Judge Frederick Van Sickle	H.W. Bush	5/14/1991 - 5/1/2008	2000 - 2005	5/1/2008 - Present	University of Wisconsin, B.S., 1965	University of Washington School of Law, J.D., 1968
Senior Judge Edward Shea	Clinton	4/8/1998 - 6/7/2012		6/7/2012 - Present	Boston State College, B.S.Ed., 1965	Georgetown U. Law Center, J.D., 1970

Magistrate judges

Judge	Active	Bachelors	Law
Magistrate Judge James Hutton	1/14/2008-Current	U. of Washington, B.A., 1972	Gonzaga University School of Law, J.D., 1976
Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno	10/1/1991-Current	U. of Pennsylvania, B.S., 1970	Gonzaga University School of Law, J.D., 1979

Past judges

Former Chief judges

Judge	Term
Charles Powell	1959 - 1972
Marshall Neill	1973 - 1979
Robert McNichols	1980 - 1989
William Goodwin	1973 - 1975
Samuel Driver	1948 - 1958
Lonny Suko	2009 - 2011
Frederick Van Sickle	2000 - 2005
William Nielsen	1995 - 2000
Justin Quackenbush	1989 - 1995
Robert Whaley	2005 - 2009

In order to qualify for the office of Chief Judge in one of the federal courts, a judge must have been in active service on the court for at least one year, be under the age of 65, and have not previously served as Chief Judge. A vacancy in the office of Chief Judge is filled by the judge highest in seniority among the group of qualified judges. The Chief Judge serves for a term of seven years or until age 70, whichever occurs first. The age restrictions are waived if no members of the court would otherwise be qualified for the position. Unlike the Chief Justice of the United States, a Chief Judge returns to active service after the expiration of his or her term and does not create a vacancy on the bench by the fact of his or her promotion. See 28 U.S.C. § 45.

These rules for Chief Judges in the federal judiciary have been in effect since October 1, 1982. The office of Chief Judge was created in 1948. Until August 6, 1959, the position was filled in each federal court by the longest-serving judge who had not elected to retire on what has since 1958 been known as senior status or declined to serve as Chief Judge. From then until 1982 it was filled by the senior such judge who had not turned 70.