Supreme Court Shuffles Circuit Assignments With Swearing in of Justice Kavanaugh

On October 19, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States shuffled its circuit justice assignments [PDF version] with the swearing in of Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh [see blog].

Since the retirement of former Justice Anthony Kennedy on July 31, 2018 [see blog], the Supreme Court had been left with eight justices. Justice Kennedy had been the circuit justice for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In the interim, Chief Justice John Roberts assumed circuit justice duties for the Ninth Circuit.

Under the new assignments, Justice Elena Kagan, who was previously the circuit justice for the United States Courts of Appeals for the Sixth and Seventh Circuits, will assume circuit justice duties for the Ninth Circuit. Justice Sonia Sotomayor will replace Justice Kagan as the circuit justice for the Sixth Circuit and Justice Kavanaugh will assume circuit justice duties for the Seventh Circuit. All other circuit justice duties will remain as they were prior to October 19.

To see the updated list of circuit justice assignments and learn more about their significance, please see our full article on the subject [see article]. To learn about the respective jurisdictions of the federal circuit courts, please see our full article on that subject [see article].