On the left side, there is U.S. District Judge James Wynn Jr. featured in a video from NC Newsline on YouTube. On the right side, we see President-elect Donald Trump giving a speech on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in a video from NBC News on YouTube.
A “grassroots” organization founded by conservative lawyer and Donald Trump ally Mike Davis has filed a judicial misconduct complaint against a federal judge and Democratic appointee in North Carolina who rescinded his plans to take “senior status” last week, calling the decision to unretire on the future POTUS — before he can take office and choose a Republican replacement — “politically motivated” and a betrayal of “the public trust in the judiciary.”
The Article III Project, which describes itself as wielding “brass knuckles to fight leftist lawfare,” filed the complaint Monday and posted it online, along with a statement detailing why it was going after Fourth Circuit Judge James Wynn Jr., who announced his decision to rescind his senior status in a letter to President Joe Biden on Dec. 14.
“The complaint raises serious concerns about violations of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges following Judge Wynn’s abrupt decision to withdraw his earlier announcement of retirement in December 2024, immediately following the outcome of the 2024 presidential election,” A3P said in its statement. “A3P’s complaint makes clear that this sudden reversal was politically motivated and undermines public trust in the judiciary.”
Appointed in 2009 by former President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2010, Wynn is a federal judicial vet who served as a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and briefly as a justice on the Supreme Court of North Carolina. His decision to unretire came last week after President Biden’s nominee to replace Wynn — North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park — withdrew his name from being considered after it was reported by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that Park didn’t have enough votes to get confirmed in the Senate.
Republicans called out Wynn in the wake of the move, with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) going after him and other judges in public statements that warned of “significant” ethics complaints to come.
“He’s earned it,” McConnell said on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.
It’s not every day that a judge has a retirement party and then tells the President he’s going to keep his job. I expect that Judge Wynn will face significant ethics complaints based on Canons 2 and 5 of the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges, followed by serial recusal demands from…
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) December 15, 2024
In addition to Wynn, A3P leaders have also announced that they’ve filed similar misconduct complaints against two trial court judges who have also rescinded senior status bids following the 2024 election.
U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn Jr. — another Obama appointee — of the Western District of North Carolina had his name quietly removed from the federal judiciary’s list of future vacancies late last month, just weeks after U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley of the Southern District of Ohio, a Bill Clinton appointee, announced he would be remaining active after officially rescinding a “senior status” bid he made in October 2023 to semi-retire.
“Until Judge Wynn, no federal appellate judge had ever rescinded a retirement or senior-status letter after a presidential election,” the A3P complaint says. “Indeed, they have long stood by their announcements of intent to retire or take senior status despite electoral outcomes.”
The A3P complaint specifically addresses two violations committed by Wynn — against Canons 2 and 5 of the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges — which are outlined in the document.
“Canon 5 prohibits United States judges from undertaking a variety of political actions, including opposing a candidate for public office, soliciting funds for a political candidate, or “engag[ing] in any other political activity,” the complaint says. “Rescinding a public retirement or senior-status letter because of the outcome of a presidential election is the epitome of engaging in political activity and opposing a political candidate.”
Citing Canon 2 directly, the complaint says: “A judge … should act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”
According to A3P, withdrawing a public senior status or retirement letter because of the results of a presidential election “strikes at the heart of impartiality and public confidence: a judge who changes his public stance based solely on presidential elections.”
In Cogburn’s and Marbley’s cases, Biden never nominated anyone to replace the two judges on account of there being a split in support from their respective state’s senators, leading to them rescinding their senior statuses. Per the Senate’s “blue slip” policy, home-state senators have the ability to support or oppose presidential nominees.
For Marbley, it was Republican Vice President-elect JD Vance, Ohio’s Republican senator, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who were standing in his way. For Cogburn, Biden would’ve had to try and get his pick past Tillis and Republican Sen. Ted Budd.
“Democrats don’t have the votes to confirm these [circuit] nominees and both seats are in red states with two Republican senators,” George Washington University law professor John P. Collins told Reuters last month. “So even if blue slips came back, you’d get a far right replacement.”
