Right now D.C. courts tell the News4 I-Team the trial for someone newly accused of a violent crime is scheduled to start in summer 2026 – more than a year-and-a-half away. That means a victim or their family has to wait all that time for answers they’re desperate to receive.
D.C. judges made an urgent plea Wednesday to prevent an even further backlog in the court system. They say time is running out to get needed judges on the bench. Unlike every state court in the country, approving new D.C. judges requires a vote in the U.S. Senate.
D.C. Superior Court Chief Judge Milton C. Lee Jr. told the I-Team he needs more judges to make the system work.
“I don't have enough pieces to play the game fairly. I cannot fill all the calendars that we have, and that means that it has a pretty significant impact on how we process cases and how we deliver justice to the citizens of the District of Columbia. I don't have enough to make the court function,” he said.
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Time never stands still in D.C. courts. Every day, new evictions, adoptions, civil cases and violent criminal cases are added to the long list of cases already waiting for a judge’s attention.
It can seem like time does stand still, though, in Congress when it’s time to get new judges in D.C. courts.
Eight nominees were nominated by President Joe Biden between June 2023 and this July. They all were voted out of committee months ago. Two more were approved in the Senate by a committee Tuesday morning. Eight of them would fill Superior Court vacancies. The remaining two would be on the DC Court of Appeals.
Eight nominees were nominated by President Joe Biden and voted out of committee months ago, and two more were approved by a committee this week.
All ten would-be judges need that Senate vote so they can hear D.C. cases. Some of the nominees already have waited for years.
“One vacancy on the Court of Appeals has existed since 2011. And we've gotten new appointments and then we get people [who] retire,” said Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby of the DC Court of Appeals. “So, we haven't quite gotten to the nine [a full complement]. And we're so close this time because we have nominees who've gone through the process and are just waiting for a final vote. And we hope we can get that.”
If recent history is any guide, the Senate vote itself would only take a few minutes. Getting it scheduled takes time and that competes with everything else on the Senate calendar in the remaining days of the year.
The 10 judges would get D.C.’s Superior Court and Appeals Court close to fully staffed for the first time in years.
If they don’t get a vote in the Senate this year, the process starts all over.
“This is not really an issue about how hard judges are work. Judges and both courts are working way beyond capacity and have been doing so for over a year,” said Lee, the chief DC Superior Court judge. “[…]We are not able to get to cases as quickly as we have been accustomed to. We are constantly asking the public to readjust their expectations.”
Almost every member of the D.C. Council sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell this week asking them to act.
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“Ensuring these local judges can be examined and confirmed quickly will help ensure the District of Columbia courts can administer justice efficiently and effectively,” the D.C. Council members wrote.
It’s up to Schumer to schedule the vote. The I-Team reached out to his office and did not receive a response.
