U.S. Capitol building. Credit: ALM

Citing a "judicial emergency," a federal trial judge in Fresno said he will stop scheduling new civil trials as he tries to juggle two criminal dockets.

U.S. District Judge Dale Drozd of the Eastern District of California also announced in two standing orders issued Feb. 6 that he will no longer be able to hear oral arguments in all civil motions. Additionally, civil trials already scheduled through 2021 are unlikely to proceed on time, he said.

"These are uncharted waters for this court," Drozd wrote in the orders. "The emergency procedures announced above are being implemented reluctantly. They are not, in the undersigned's view, conducive to the fair administration of justice. However, the court has been placed in an untenable position in which it simply has no choice."

The Feb. 2 retirement of Judge Lawrence O'Neill left Drozd as the only non-senior district judge in the Fresno courthouse. Drozd said his focus has shifted to handling his own criminal calendar and the one once shepherded by O'Neill. Drozd's criminal standing order warns attorneys that he may find himself "juggling several cases with overlapping trial schedules and posing different Speedy Trial Act considerations."

"He's overwhelmed," said longtime Fresno attorney Anthony Capozzi.

Judges in California's Eastern District have long complained about excessive caseloads and inadequate numbers of bench positions to handle them. The 34-county court, which stretches from the Oregon border down the eastern side of California to Bakersfield, has not been given a new judgeship since 1978. Since then, the region's population has mushroomed from 2.5 million to approximately 8 million.

Until recent retirements, the Eastern District's six judges, aided by 14 magistrates, handled a caseload ranked 10th highest among the nation's 94 districts in 2019, according to federal judicial statistics.

"It has been a long-standing, systemic problem in the Eastern District that we are not adequately staffed with district court judges," said McGregor Scott, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District who served in the office between 2003 and 2009 before returning in 2018 from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

The Sacramento courthouse has also been hit by vacancies. U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. took senior status in December and underwent surgery, leaving him temporarily unable to work. U.S. District Senior Judge Garland Burrell Jr. assumed inactive senior status Dec. 31.

The Trump administration, with an initial focus on filling circuit court vacancies, has not announced any nominations to the Eastern District. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has vetted two potential candidates for the district court, said a source who was interviewed by the agency. But those names have not been formally introduced.

The Trump administration and California's two Democratic U.S. senators have been at odds over past nominees to courts in the Golden State. While Senate Republicans dropped the traditional "blue-slip" process allowing home-state senators to block nominees for circuit judges, it remains in place for district court candidates.

"Sen. Feinstein understands the critical role of judges in the Eastern District and shares concerns about the current vacancies," said Feinstein aide Adam Russell. "She and Sen. [Kamala] Harris are working to ensure that qualified, mainstream jurists are confirmed to fill those vacancies."

Scott, a Republican, called the need for more judges "a good government issue."

"This is not a partisan issue in any way, shape or form," he said.