United States District Court for the Western District of New York

	Western District of New York
	Second Circuit
	Active judges
	Arcara • Geraci • Skretny
	Senior Judges
	Curtin • Larimer • Siragusa • Telesca
	Magistrate Judges
	Feldman • Foschio • McCarthy • Payson • Scott • Schroeder
	Former Judges

	Western District of New York
	Second Circuit
	Active judges
	Arcara • Geraci • Skretny
	Senior Judges
	Curtin • Larimer • Siragusa • Telesca
	Magistrate Judges
	Feldman • Foschio • McCarthy • Payson • Scott • Schroeder
	Former Judges

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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 See also
1.6 External links
1.7 References
2 Judges

The United States District Court for the Western District of New York is a United States district court.

Vacancy warning level

The United States District Court for the Western District of New York's vacancy warning level is currently set at yellow. The court currently has one vacancy for its 4 posts and no pending appointments.

Jurisdiction

The Counties of the Western District of New York (click for larger map)

The geographic jurisdiction of the Western District of New York consists of all the following counties in the western part of the state of New York.

In addition, the Western District of New York has jurisdiction over the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, and Elmira.

The United States Government is represented in the district by the United States Attorney for the Western District of New York. The current U.S. Attorney for the district is William J. Hochul, Jr..

When decisions of the court are appealed, they are appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals based in Lower Manhattan at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Courthouse.

Cases heard

The Western District of New York 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	3354	2882	6236	3076	3160	8.9	8.2	428 (17.6%)	12.0	15
2009	3284	2860	6144	2760	3384	10.4	9.1	33(3.3%)	6.9	29
2008	3104	2636	5740	2431	3309	7.9	11.9	542 (20.8%)	0	11
2007	3322	2418	5740	2662	3078	8.5	14.0	494 (19.4%)	0	13
2006	3142	2629	5771	2446	3325	9.0	10.9	456 (17.4%)	0	18

^*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 Western District of New York has two separate courthouses. Michael J. Roemer the official clerk of court, and all mail should be directed to him at either courthouse. All phone calls can be directed to the Clerk at 716-332-1700 (Buffalo) or 585-613-4000 (Rochester) between the hours of 9:00am and 5:00pm. Please consult the chart below for more information:

Branch	Address	Mailing Address
Buffalo Office	U.S. Courthouse 68 Court Street Buffalo, NY 14202	Michael J. Roemer Clerk of Court U.S. District Court 68 Court Street Buffalo, NY 14202
Rochester Office	Kenneth B. Keating Federal Building 100 State Street Rochester, NY 14614	Debra P. Hackett Clerk of Court U.S. District Court 100 State Street Rochester, NY 14614

^[1]

History

Court history

The District of New York was established by Congress on September 24, 1789, with one post to cover the entire state. On April 09, 1814, Congress split the district into two, creating the Northern and Southern Districts of New York, each receiving one judgeship. The Eastern District was created on February 25, 1865, with one authorized judgeship. The Western District was created last of the districts on May 12, 1900, receiving one authorized judgeship. Over time three additional judicial posts were added for a total of four current posts.^[2]

Judicial posts

The following table highlights the development of judicial posts for the Western District of New York:

Year	Statute	Total Seats
September 24, 1789	1 Stat. 73	1 (District of New York)
May 12, 1900	31 Stat. 175	1
March 3, 1927	44 Stat. 1370	2
March 18, 1966	80 Stat. 75	3
July 10, 1984	98 Stat. 1929	4 (3 permanent, 1 temporary)
December 1, 1990	104 STat. 5089	4 (4 permanent)

^[2]

Notable cases

For a searchable list of opinions, please see Opinions of the Western District of New York.

• Sex change lawsuit Judge(s):Charles Siragusa *Ravenwood v. Daines 6:06-cv-06355-CJS-MWP
On July 27, 2009, Judge Siragusa ruled that a Medicaid recipient in New York State cannot have gender re-assignment surgery paid by the government insurance program. Morgana Ravenwood sued the State of New York on claims that the state violated the 14th Amendment when denying coverage, but the judge did not believe Ravenwood's argument was proven beyond a reasonable doubt.^[3]

External links

References

Share this Court:

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

Since the court was established, fourteen Article III federal judges have served on it.^[1]

Active judges

Article III judges

See: Article III federal judge
The United States District Court for the Western District of New York has 4 posts and 1 vacancy. The current Chief Judge is William Skretny. This is a list of the current judges on the court:

Judge	Born	Home	Appointed by	Active	Chief	Preceeded	Bachelors	Law
Judge Richard Arcara	1940	Buffalo, NY		2/22/1988 - Present	2003 - 2010	John Elfvin	St. Bonaventure U., B.A., 1962	Villanova U. Law, J.D., 1965
Chief Judge William Skretny	1945	Buffalo, NY	H.W. Bush	08/07/1990 - Present	2010 - Present	John Curtin	Canisius College, B.A., 1966	Howard Law, J.D., 1969
Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr.	1951	Rochester, NY	Obama	12/13/2012 - Present		David Larimer	U. of Dayton, B.A., 1973	U. of Dayton Law, J.D., 1973

Pending appointments

The United States District Court for the Western District of New York has 0 appointees pending and 1 vacancy. This is a list of the current pending appointees to the court:

Judge	Confirmation	Bachelors	Law
Elizabeth A. Wolford		Colgate U., B.A., 1989	Notre Dame Law, J.D., 1992

Senior judges

See: Federal judges on senior status
The United States District Court for the Western District of New York has 4 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 David Larimer		11/06/1987 - 03/02/2009	1996 - 2002	03/03/2009 - Present	St. John Fisher College, B.A., 1966	Notre Dame Law, J.D. 1969
Senior Judge Charles Siragusa		11/05/1997 - 12/15/2012		12/15/2012-Current	LeMoyne College, B.A., 1969	Albany Law, J.D., 1976
Senior Judge John Curtin	L.B. Johnson	12/14/1967 - 06/30/1989	1974 - 1989	07/01/1989 - Present	Canisius College, B.A., 1946	U. of Buffalo Law School, LL.B., 1949
Senior Judge Michael Telesca	Reagan	04/21/1982 - 05/02/1996	1989 - 1995	05/03/1996 - Present	U. of Rochester, B.A., 1952	U. of Buffalo Law, LL.B., 1955

Magistrate judges

Judge	Active	Bachelors	Law
Magistrate Judge Victor Bianchini	2006 - Present	San Diego State, 1960	U. of San Diego Law, 1963
Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman	11/06/1995 - Present	Cornell, 1978	Syracuse U. Law, J.D., 1981
Magistrate Judge (Recalled) Leslie Foschio	1991 - 01/30/2007	U. of Buffalo, B.A.	U. of Buffalo Law, L.L.B.
Magistrate Judge Jeremiah McCarthy	02/26/2007 - Present	Notre Dame	Cornell Law
Magistrate Judge Marian Payson	04/13/2003 - Present	Duke U.	Northwestern U. Law
Magistrate Judge Hugh Scott	06/01/1995 - Present	Niagara U., B.A., 1971	U. of Buffalo Law , J.D., 1974
Magistrate Judge Kenneth Schroeder	06/01/2000 - Present

Past judges

Former Chief judges

Judge	Term
John Henderson
Harold Burke
John Knight (New York)
Michael Telesca	1989 - 1995
John Curtin	1974 - 1989
David Larimer	1996 - 2002
Richard Arcara	2003 - 2010

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.