Rovner, Seventh Circuit’s First Woman Judge, to Semi-Retire

Judge Ilana Rovner, the first woman appointed to the Chicago-based US appeals court, announced plans to take a form of semi-retirement.

Rovner was appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit by President H. W. Bush in 1992. She had earlier served as a judge on the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois since 1984.

“In this, my 40th year as a federal judge,” Rovner wrote in a Friday letter to President Joe Biden that “I intend to leave active service and assume senior status upon the confirmation and appointment of my successor.”

Rovner wrote that she was the first woman to serve on the court since its creation in 1891. “Today, I am delighted to say, I am one of five women in active service on our court.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a statement that, “I look forward to working with Senator Duckworth and President Biden to fill this seat and continue ensuring a fair justice system for all Illinoisans.”

Rovner, who was born in Latvia, said that she and her mother came to the US in 1939 “as refugees from the Nazis, escaping the unspeakable fate that our family and friends met in Europe.”

“This great nation took us from certain death and gave us every possible opportunity to make a new life for ourselves,” Rovner wrote.

Rovner’s plans were reported earlier by Reuters.