Seventh Circuit Returns To Full Strength

As Wisconsin lawyers well know, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has been working with less than its fully authorized complement of eleven active circuit judges since Judge Terence Evans took senior status in January 2010. The court continued with 10 active members until February 2015, when Judge John Tinder of Indiana retired. Then, in rapid succession last year, Judge Ann Claire Williams took senior status in June, and Judge Richard Posner retired in September, leaving two Illinois vacancies on the court and reducing the number of active judges to seven.

The work of the court continued, of course, with Senior Judges William Bauer, Kenneth Ripple, and Daniel Manion sitting regularly and the court calling on many district judges from the three states to sit with the court from time to time. But the personality and character of a federal court of appeals inevitably derive over time from its active judges, who sit together year after year in randomly