Appointment of Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie to Third Circuit Court of Appeals Confirmed

Yesterday, April 21, 2010, the United States Senate confirmed President Obama's appointment of Pennsylvania Middle District Federal Court Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie, 56, to the United States Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Vanaskie is a graduate of Lycoming College and the Dickinson School of Law. After many years in private practice, he has served as a Judge in the Middle District over the past 16 years.

Judge Vanaskie's confirmation gives the Third Circuit Court of Appeals a full slate of 14 judges, but leaves the Federal Courthouse in Scranton with no full-time judge. The local federal court judges, Judge William J. Nealon, Judge Richard P. Conaboy, Judge Edwin M. Kosik, Judge James M. Munley, and Judge A. Richard Caputo, have all reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 and are supposed to work as part-time senior judges.

According to an April 22, 2010 article in Scranton's The Times-Tribune, Senator Bob Casey has advised that a panel appointed to recommend candidates for the Federal Bench in the Middle District have finished their assignment. Apparently, Senator Bob Casey and Senator Arlen Specter are now in the process of going through the panel's recommendations to determine which names to suggest to President Obama in the nomination process.

Sources:

"Vanaskie Confirmed," by Borys Krawczeniuk in the April 22, 2010 The Times-Tribune.
(http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/shamokin-native-vanaskie-ascends-to-federal-appeals-court-bench-1.739558);

"Confirmation of Vanaskie Gives 3d Circuit Full Complement," by Shannon P. Duffy in the April 22, 2010 Legal Intelligencer. (http://www.law.com/jsp/pa/PubArticlePA.jsp?id=1202448456886&src=EMC-Email&et=editorial&bu=The%20Legal%20Intelligencer&pt=TLI%20AM%20Legal%20Alert&cn=TLI_AM_LegalAlert_20100422&kw=Confirmation%20of%20Vanaskie%20Gives%203rd%20Circuit%20Full%20Complement&hbxlogin=1).