Sweetening Senior Status Is Potential Path to Boost Judge Supply

One way to get federal appellate courts more judges without help from Congress is to convince more jurists to take senior status, a form of semi-retirement that allows them to continue hearing cases while freeing their seat for a nominee.

The trouble is life-tenured judges in senior status “might not be perceived to have equal status with an active judge,” said Duke University Law Professor Marin K. Levy. Senior judges sometimes have to move offices, get listed last on opinions, or are even seated on the periphery at ceremonial events.

Improving senior-status treatment could convince more judges to take ...