U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Beryl Howell will take senior status on Feb. 1, 2024, opening a vacancy on the federal court, the U.S. Courts website revealed. Howell was appointed to the court in 2010, prior to which she clerked for Judge Dickinson Debevoise in the District of New Jersey and was an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. She also worked as the general counsel of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary and as commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

The U.S. Lumber Coalition -- the petitioner in the fourth review of the antidumping duty order on lumber from Canada -- welcomed the Canadian government's stated intent to appeal the review results to the Court of International Trade. The judicial appeal is a "welcome change" in Ottawa's approach to the case because the nation "traditionally insists on requesting a United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement panel for their appeals," the coalition said.

President Joe Biden on Aug. 30 announced four new nominations to federal district courts as part of his seventh round of judicial nominations. Colleen Holland, special counsel to Judge Elizabeth Wolford at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, was nominated to the same New York court. Judge John Kazen, current magistrate judge for the Southern District of Texas, was nominated to the same Texas court. Micah Smith, assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Hawaii, was nominated for the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. Ramona Manglona, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, was nominated for the same court.

The U.S. removed sanctions from two former board members of a Russian state-owned bank after both argued they didn’t meet the criteria for placement on the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals List. The sanctions removals, made by the Office of Foreign Assets Control late last month, came after Russian nationals Elena Titova and Andrey Golikov, in separate complaints, sued the U.S. government over their designations, accusing it of sanctioning them on “no factual basis” and “unnecessarily” delaying delisting decisions.

Members of the trade bar interested in joining the Court of International Trade's Rules Advisory Committee should submit letters expressing that interest by Sept. 8, the court announced. The committee considers the court's rules and makes recommendations about potential changes in line with the "Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the statutes impacting the Court’s jurisdiction, and other developments that may affect the work of the Court." The group meets four times a year, alternating between New York City and Washington, D.C., and also meets in smaller groups as needed.

President Joe Biden's two nominees to fill vacancies at the Court of International Trade, Schagrin Associates' Joseph Laroski and the Commerce Department's Lisa Wang (see 2307120021), went before the Senate Judiciary Committee during a hearing on July 26. The two nominees faced questioning from the senators, including inquiries into their backgrounds and how their past experiences will shape their decision-making on the bench.

The White House on July 11 officially sent the Senate its two nominees to fill vacancies on the Court of International Trade. The Commerce Department's Lisa Wang and Schagrin Associates' Joseph Laroski were nominated to fill the seats left by Judges Leo Gordon and Timothy Stanceu, respectively.

The lack of disclosure in Enforce and Protect Act evasion proceedings and the deferential standard of review "stack the deck" in favor of the alleger, giving importers "a lot to complain about in the EAPA process," customs lawyer Larry Friedman of Barnes/Richardson said in a July 6 blog post. Even importers who believe they have conducted reasonable due diligence may have serious unexpected liabilities that come out during the investigation, he said.

The Court of International Trade announced it will be closed July 3. The closure is in addition to the closure on July 4 in observance of Independence Day.

A July 13 oral argument related to Judge Pauline Newman's fitness to continue serving on the bench will be closed to the public, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit special committee ordered this week. In the June 20 order, the committee said that aside from an initial strong presumption of confidentiality in the proceeding, making the hearing public could jeopardize key information.