Left: U.S. District Judge James Wynn Jr. (NC Newsline/YouTube). Right: President-elect Donald Trump speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” (NBC News/YouTube).
A federal judge in North Carolina appointed by former president Barack Obama has rescinded his plans to take “senior status,” making him the third Democratic appointee — and second Obama pick — to unretire on President-elect Donald Trump before he can take office and choose their replacements.
Fourth Circuit Judge James Wynn Jr. announced his decision in a letter to President Joe Biden that was made public Saturday by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who called it “a slap in the face to the U.S. Senate” in a statement and press release after he issued repeated warnings to Wynn and other judges over the past few months not to revoke their senior status.
“I write to advise that, after careful consideration, I have decided to continue in active regular service,” Wynn told Biden. “As a result of that decision, I respectfully withdraw my letter to you of January 5, 2024. I apologize for any inconvenience I may have caused.”
The move comes after Biden’s nominee to replace Wynn, North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park, withdrew his name from being considered after it was reported by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that Park didn’t have enough votes to get confirmed in the Senate, per Reuters.
Tillis set his sights on both Wynn and Park after Biden made his pick in July, telling both he had enough support to block Park’s nomination and warning Wynn and other federal judges “not to play partisan politics with the presidential transition and a Senate deal and going back on their word” to retire, according to The News & Observer.
Tillis reportedly told the Judiciary Committee in November that if Park’s nomination was confirmed there “would be consequences” and he would support every single nominee Trump put forward during his presidency in response.
Democrats went on to approve Park, but the move was in vain as Democrats and Republicans agreed to toss at least four of Biden’s appellate noms out the window on Friday in exchange for a smoother approval process for Biden’s remaining district court selections — with Park being one of them.
That’s when Wynn’s reversal came into the picture.
“Judge Wynn’s brazenly partisan decision to rescind his retirement is an unprecedented move that demonstrates some judges are nothing more than politicians in robes,” Tillis wrote in his statement and on X Saturday. “Judge Wynn clearly takes issue with the fact that @realDonaldTrump was just elected President, and this decision is a slap in the face to the U.S. Senate, which came to a bipartisan agreement to hold off on confirming his replacement until the next Congress is sworn-in in January.”
Judge Wynn’s brazenly partisan decision to rescind his retirement is an unprecedented move that demonstrates some judges are nothing more than politicians in robes. Judge Wynn clearly takes issue with the fact that @realDonaldTrump was just elected President, and this decision is…
— Senator Thom Tillis (@SenThomTillis) December 14, 2024
Appointed in 2009 by Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2010, Wynn is a federal judicial vet who served as a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and briefly as a justice on the Supreme Court of North Carolina. He announced his plans to take senior status in January and even threw a retirement party.
“The Senate Judiciary Committee should hold a hearing on his blatant attempt to turn the judicial retirement system into a partisan game,” Tillis said Saturday. “And he deserves the ethics complaints and recusal demands from the Department of Justice heading his way.”
Wynn is now the second federal judge and Obama appointee from North Carolina to unretire, with U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn Jr. of the Western District of North Carolina being quietly removed from the federal judiciary’s list of future vacancies late last month, just weeks after U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley of the Southern District of Ohio — a Bill Clinton appointee — announced he would be remaining active after officially rescinding a “senior status” bid he made in October 2023 to semi-retire.
In Cogburn’s and Marbley’s cases, Biden never nominated anyone to replace the two judges on account of there being a split in support from their respective state’s senators. Per the Senate’s “blue slip” policy, home-state senators have the ability to support or oppose presidential nominees.
For Marbley, it was Republican Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, Ohio’s Republican senator, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who would have been asked to confirm Biden’s nominee. In the Tar Heel State, Biden would’ve had to try and get his pick for Cogburn past Tillis and Sen. Ted Budd, both Republicans.
“Democrats don’t have the votes to confirm these [circuit] nominees and both seats are in red states with two Republican senators,” George Washington University law professor John P. Collins told Reuters last month. “So even if blue slips came back, you’d get a far right replacement.”
