Today's Baltimore Sun has an interesting article about the liberal shift in the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals since President Barack Obama took office. The Sun story chronicles a variety of decisions issued by the court, which was once known as the most conservative circuit court in the nation. The United States is divided into thirteen circuits (11 regional and the D.C. and Federal Circuits). The Fourth Circuit is one of the most important circuits in the nation and includes Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. As a byproduct of its regional jurisdiction, the court also hears national intelligence matters involving the Pentagon, the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Over the years the Fourth Circuit has issued very controversial opinions on issues of criminal law and procedure and civil rights. Historically, the Fourth Circuit has agreed to review fewer death penalty cases than other circuits whose states still permit sentences of death. It has been adverse to discrimination cases of all types, and has sided with law enforcement in a wide variety of cases allowing admission of coerced confessions at trial, and has found the slightest unusual activity of a criminal suspect justification for searches and seizures of persons and property.
Recently, however, the court has issued a number of cases which suggest that the court is no longer as conservative in its rulings. The Sun summarizes some of these rulings, which include a 2-1 decision issued last week that found that Seat Pleasant police officers overstepped their bounds when they used a suspect's prior criminal history as justification for a search and seizure during which crack cocaine was found and the defendant was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison. In March 2011, it overturned a criminal conviction which arose from a search and seizure police justified based on the suspect's unusual but otherwise innocuous movement within his vehicle. In July 2011, the court ruled that prosecutors may not strip away a defendant's right of appeal as a condition for a reduced sentence. And earlier this month, the court ruled that a stiffer sentence may not be imposed upon a defendant for claiming innocence while testifying in his own defense.
Of course, this begs the questions again and again asked: Why should politics play any role in the judicial decision making? What about the separation of powers doctrine? Is judicial activism limited to those decisions that represent expansive rather than restrictive court involvement and constitutional interpretation, or does it also include any decision where political views are as important as the laws being interpreted? The impact of political views and philosophies on court decisions is a difficult issue to reconcile, yet it is understandable in light of the fact that the views of judges is what gets them appointed (or elected).
Here is the list of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals judges by order of seniority:
J. Harvie Wilkinson, III (Reagan); Paul V. Niemeyer (George H.W. Bush); Diana Gribbon Motz (Clinton); William B. Traxler (Clinton); Robert B. King (Clinton); Dennis W. Shedd (George W. Bush); Aliyson K. Duncan (George W. Bush); G. Steven Agee (George W. Bush); Albert Diaz (Obama); James A. Wynn (Obama); Barbara M. Keenan (Obama); Andre M. Davis (Obama);Henry F. Floyd (Obama).
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