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A judge who broke ground as the first woman to serve on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has announced she will be taking senior status, creating a new vacancy for the federal appellate court.
Judge Ilana Rovner informed President Joe Biden in a letter Friday of her intent, according to Reuters.
In her letter, Rovner noted she and her mother came to the United States from Latvia in late 1939 to join her father as refugees from the Nazis.
“This great nation took us from certain death and gave us every possible opportunity to make a new life for ourselves. Our experience gave me a deep respect for the rule of law and a personal understanding of the horrors that can ensue when it is abandoned. I was never more proud than on the days that I was sworn in as an American citizen and, years later, with my parents of blessed memory looking on, as a United States District Court Judge and then a United States Circuit Court Judge,” Rovner wrote.
Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond School of Law professor, told Indiana Lawyer he expects Rovner’s vacancy to be filled quickly, particularly because she is an Illinois judge and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, hails from the same state.
He said Durbin is very aware of the calendar and will likely try to expedite the finding and announcement of a nominee to fill Rovner’s seat.
Tobias noted Rovner’s groundbreaking status as the first woman to serve on the 7th Circuit bench.
“She’s a legend in her own time,” Tobias said of Rovner.
Rovner’s announcement comes as Magistrate Judge Joshua Kolar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana still awaits a confirmation vote to fill the vacancy on the 7th Circuit created by the 2022 death of Judge Michael Kanne.
Kolar, along with St. Joseph Superior Judge Cristal C. Brisco and Elkhart Superior Judge Gretchen S. Lund, was on a list of federal judicial nominees announced for renomination on Jan. 8.
Tobias said there is a rescheduled Judiciary Committee executive business meeting set for Thursday at 10 a.m.
According to the 7th Circuit website, Rovner was nominated by former President George H.W. Bush on July 2, 1992, to a seat vacated by Harlington Wood Jr.
Rovner was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and received her commission in August 1992.
She had also served as a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois from 1984 to 1992.
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