A federal courthouse building in Amarillo is among six “non-resident federal court facilities” targeted to cut costs. The rented space has a courtroom but no permanently assigned judge, and it has a bankruptcy court clerk’s office. The operations housed in the building will move to the J. Marvin Jones Federal Building and Courthouse in Amarillo, says Chief U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater of the Northern District of Texas. On Sept. 11, the Judicial Conference of the United States agreed to close the six court facilities in six states to save about $1 million a year in rent costs. The other buildings are in Wilkesboro, N.C.; Beaufort, S.C.; Meridian, Miss.; Pikeville, Ky., and Gadsden, Ala. Fitzwater says the Northern District did not oppose the consolidation in Amarillo. “We are going to be good stewards” of federal money, says Fitzwater, who sits in Dallas. He says there is room in the federal courthouse in Amarillo to accommodate the operations currently in the leased building. The federal courthouse has three courtrooms, so U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Jones, who has chambers in Lubbock, will continue to hear cases in Amarillo. “It’s part of the whole program of cost-containment, which has been going on for a while in the judiciary,” says Karen Redmond, a spokeswoman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in Washington, D.C. The move in Amarillo will occur once the lease for the rented space is canceled.
The Law of Love
It’s a question that just won’t die in Texas: Can a non-active duty federal judge perform a wedding ceremony? A June 4 Texas attorney general opinion found that Family Code §2.202(a)(4) does not authorize a retired federal judge to conduct a marriage ceremony in Texas. The Bowie County criminal district attorney had requested that opinion on behalf of retired U.S. District Judge David Folsom, who, out of “an abundance of caution,” had refrained from presiding over his wife’s goddaughter’s wedding after leaving the bench. The June 4 AG opinion also caused Baylor University President Ken Starr, a retired U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit judge, to play it safe before performing a wedding on the Baylor campus last month. Starr performed the ceremony but Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett performed a second legal wedding immediately after. On Aug. 30, Jefferson County Criminal District Attorney Tom Maness sent the Texas Office of the Attorney General a request on Senior U.S. District Judge Thad Heartfield’s behalf, seeking an opinion to clarify whether senior federal judges can perform weddings, Heartfield says. Heartfield, who took senior status in 2010 and still hears cases, says there is a question as to whether his senior status makes him a “retired” judge for §2.202(a)(4)’s purposes. “It’s just a little bit foggy, and I wanted to be clear about it because I don’t know senior judges who are in the marrying business,” Heartfield says. He says no couples’ pending nuptials are riding on the request for an AG opinion. “I haven’t performed but five marriages in 17 years,” while an active judge, Heartfield says. “But we don’t traditionally have a big flow of marriage ceremonies. It’s just close friends.”
