7th Circuit's Sykes to take senior status, creating vacancy for Trump

By Nate Raymond

March 20 (Reuters) - Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Diane Sykes plans to step down from active service on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, creating the first new vacancy on the Chicago-based court since U.S. President Donald Trump's second term began.

Sykes, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush who Trump had included on a short-list for U.S. Supreme Court nominees in his first term, notified the president of her decision to take senior status effective October 1 in a letter on Wednesday.

The 67-year-old in her letter noted she had spent now 33 years serving in both the Wisconsin and federal judiciaries. She is leaving active service to have more time with her children and grandchildren, said Sarah Schrup, the circuit executive.

"I am grateful for the opportunity to serve and look forward to providing substantial judicial service as a senior judge," Sykes wrote.

Her decision gives Trump his first opportunity in his second term to make an appointment to the Chicago-based 7th Circuit, which hears appeals from courts in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. Republican appointees have a 6-5 majority on the 7th Circuit.

Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for judges over the age of 65 who have completed at least 15 years on the federal bench. Presidents may name new full-time judges to fill those judges' seats.

Sykes is the second judge on the nation's 13 intermediate federal appeals courts to announce plans to take senior status since Trump returned to the White House.

U.S. Circuit Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta, also an appointee of President George W. Bush on the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, this month also made plans to take senior status. Four other federal appeals court seats are open as a result of retirement announcements during Democratic President Joe Biden's tenure.

Sykes had been a justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court when Bush nominated her to serve on the 7th Circuit in 2003. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate the next year and became its chief judge in 2020.

Her opinions include an October 2014 decision upholding a Wisconsin's 2012 voter identification law. The U.S. Supreme Court put that decision on hold before the 2014 general election could take place but the next year allowed the decision to stand.

Sykes also dissented from an 8-3 decision in 2017 holding for the first time that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees were protected from sex discrimination in the workplace under the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Sykes accused the majority of "circumvention of the legislative process by which the people govern themselves." The U.S. Supreme Court in another case, 2020's Bostock v. Clayton County, reached the same conclusion as the majority.

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