Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
For the second time in a year, a U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana judge has announced they will assume senior status.
Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson confirmed Friday she will assume senior status on July 1, 2024. President Joe Biden has not yet publicly announced his nominee to succeed her.
A federal judge since 2010, Magnus-Stinson told Indiana Lawyer she is taking senior status when she’s eligible in part to bring another full-time judge into the Indiana Southern District and help ease the district’s weighted caseload numbers with that judicial addition, plus her continued service on the bench.
Based on the United States District Courts National Judicial Caseload Profile for the 12-month period ending Dec. 31, 2022, the Indiana Southern District’s 645 weighted filings per judgeship placed the court first within the 7th Circuit and seventh nationally in terms of caseloads.
Chief Judge Tanya Walton Pratt noted those numbers when she spoke about Judge Matthew Brookman’s elevation to district court judge this past spring.
Brookman, a former magistrate judge, succeeded now-Senior Judge Richard Young, who announced in December 2022 that he would be taking senior status.
Magnus-Stinson also noted that she turns 66 next year, and said she felt it was an appropriate time for her to reduce her workload and think about pursuing other things.
For example, depending on the timing, she may look at teaching again. She has taught trial advocacy courses in the past.
“To actually teach a course, that might be a new challenge I’m interested in,” she said.
Also, the judge said she and her husband are interested in possibly traveling to Ireland or taking a trip to Europe.
Magnus-Stinson has been a judge in some capacity since 1995, when she began serving as a Marion Superior Court judge. She then became a federal magistrate judge in 2007 in the Indiana Southern District before being confirmed to a full judgeship in 2010.
“This has been the honor of my life,” she said. “It’s wonderful work. I’m proud to have been a part of this court.”
Magnus-Stinson was nominated to the Indiana Southern District bench by former President Barack Obama on Jan. 20, 2010, to fill the seat vacated by the late Judge Larry J. McKinney upon his assumption of senior status.
During her time on the bench, she served as chief judge of the Indiana Southern District from November 2016 to March 2021. She was also associate presiding judge in the Marion Superior Court from 2005 to 2006.
Before taking the bench, she served as counsel and deputy chief of staff to then-Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh from 1991 to 1995.
She maintained a civil litigation practice at Lewis Wagner LLP from 1983 through 1990. She is a 1983 graduate of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law and a 1979 graduate of Butler University.
Magnus-Stinson currently serves on the Defender Services Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States Courts, the Seventh Circuit Criminal Pattern Jury Instructions Committee, the Seventh Circuit Advisory Committee on Rules and the Seventh Circuit Committee on Supervised Release, according to the Southern District.
For more on federal judicial vacancies, pick up the Sept. 13 issue of Indiana Lawyer.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.