David Schenck Quoted in Texas Lawyer

Offers Perspective on 5th Circuit Vacancies That Await Presidential Appointment

Press Mentions

3.21.13

David J. Schenck, a member of Dykema’s Litigation Department resident in the Firm’s Dallas office, was quoted in an article, “Help Wanted: Who Will Fill 5th Circuit Vacancies?” that appeared in the March 18, 2013 issue of Texas Lawyer.

The article notes that while President Obama has appointed six U.S. District Court judges in Texas, he has not yet placed a jurist from the great State of Texas on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the article, Schenck observes that since this presidential appointment must be endorsed by Texas’ two Republican senators, the selection process for an appointee who serves for life “is difficult, because it’s supposed to be difficult, constitutionally. This is not like a toll-collector appointment.”

Schenck has first-hand knowledge of the 5th Circuit, having clerked for the late Henry Politz, a judge who served on the 5th Circuit bench for two decades (the last seven years of which were as Chief Judge). Schenck notes that a top-tier appointee should be “a law-and-order, no-nonsense, fair-minded person” whose body of work indicates a “competent, impartial and reliable person for lifetime tenure on a very important court.” 

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