RICHMOND — The nation’s longest-serving federal appellate judge has stepped down as an active member of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, leaving it with five vacancies.
Judge H. Emory Widener Jr. took senior status on Tuesday, his secretary Peg Bishop confirmed yesterday. Miss Bishop would not give a reason for the move, and she said no one in the office was authorized to comment.
A man who answered the phone at Judge Widener’s home in Abingdon, Va., said the judge was not available for comment and directed questions to Judge Widener’s office.
President Nixon appointed Judge Widener to the federal appeals court in 1972.
Judge Widener told President Bush in 2001 that he would take senior status once a successor was confirmed. Mr. Bush nominated Pentagon lawyer William J. Haynes II for the seat last year, but pulled the nomination in January when it became apparent the Senate’s new Democratic majority would reject him and several other of the president’s nominees.
Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III said Judge Widener’s senior status — a form of semi-retirement for judges 65 and older — is a milestone.
“Judge Widener is a judge with extraordinary sense of duty who served on active status well into his 80s out of devotion to this court,” Judge Wilkinson said.
The vacancies — the most of any federal appellate court — amount to a third of the slots authorized for the court, which has handled some of the country’s biggest terrorism cases, including that of September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.
The circuit covers Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina.
The court’s vacancies date back as far as 1994, when Judge J. Dickson Phillips Jr. took senior status. That’s by far the longest opening in the entire federal court system. The Senate also blocked Mr. Bush’s pick to replace Judge Phillips, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle of North Carolina.
The vacancies have prompted concerns about the court’s ability to continue to resolve cases promptly.
Chief Judge William W. Wilkins, who took senior status July 1, said he thinks the quality of the work done by the court will not be affected, but the length of time will. His colleagues agree.
“We’re down to two-thirds of our full allotment,” said Judge Paul V. Niemeyer. “I think the court has been getting along fairly well, but I think at some point the deficit is going to catch up with us and it should be rectified.”
Born in Abingdon in 1923, Judge Widener served in the Navy from 1944 to 1949, and in the Reserves from 1951 to 1952. He received his bachelor’s degree from Washington and Lee University in 1953 and worked in private practice in Bristol, Va., for more than a decade.
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