U.S. Circuit Judge Charles Wilson plans to leave active service upon the confirmation of a successor but no sooner than Dec. 31, creating a new vacancy on the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
A court official confirmed on Tuesday that Wilson, an appointee of Democratic former President Bill Clinton from Florida who was the second Black person to ever serve on the 11th Circuit, plans to take senior status.
Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for judges over the age of 65 who have completed at least 15 years on the federal bench. Presidents may name new full-time judges to fill those judges' seats.
That could give Democratic President Joe Biden a chance to make his second appointment to the 12-member court, which hears appeals from Alabama, Florida and Georgia. U.S. Circuit Judge Nancy Abudu, his first appointee, is the first Black woman to serve on the court.
The news was first reported by the Southern District of Florida Blog.
Following his graduation from Notre Dame Law School in 1979, Wilson served as a clerk to U.S. Circuit Judge Joseph Hatchett, who after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was divided up in 1981 to create the 11th Circuit became its first Black judge.
Wilson served as a prosecutor and worked in private practice before joining the state court bench in Florida and later serving as a federal magistrate judge.
Wilson served as the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida from 1994 to 1999, when Clinton nominated him to fill a vacancy created by Hatchett's retirement.
His recent decisions include an opinion in June vacating a 2022 decision by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle that halted a federal order requiring masks on airplanes and other transportation modes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
By the time the 11th Circuit ruled, President Joe Biden had declared an end to the COVID-19 public health emergency.
While a group challenging the mask mandate argued Mizelle's ruling should be left to stand to bar the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from reinstating it, Wilson called that "speculative" and agreed with the administration that the case was moot.
The court in that case, on a 2-1 vote, granted an injunction blocking Fearless Fund's program pending an appeal of a lower-court ruling that rejected arguments by Edward Blum's Students for Fair Admissions. The court is slated to hear the appeal on the merits on Jan. 31.
Read more:
US appeals court vacates travel mask mandate ruling
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