By Mike Donoghue, Vermont News First

RUTLAND — A newly-formed seven-member screening committee is expected to begin work later this month reviewing the names of Vermonter lawyers interested in filling the seat of U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford.

Crawford, who has served on the federal bench since 2014, first publicly disclosed his plans to retire next summer while he was talking in open court last June to lawyers about a complex murder of hire case that he is presiding over.  

Crawford, 69, will take Senior Status in mid-August – which allows him to preside over a limited caseload, including continuing with the elaborate cross-country murder for hire case from the Northeast Kingdom. A jury trial is scheduled for the final two defendants next fall, probably in Rutland.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as the state’s senior senator, is taking the lead on the selection process this time. He has appointed three people to the Judicial Nomination Advisory Panel.

U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., who was appointed to the Senate Judiciary Committee last year, has been allocated two seats.

The Vermont Bar Association has been asked to provide the final two members. The VBA solicited nominations to be on the screening committee and the executive board sent names of qualified lawyers to Sanders.

The judicial selection process has always been part transparent and part confidential.    

The selection process this time is slightly different from Vermont’s longstanding tradition. Former U.S. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., who served in the senate for 48 years, normally used a 9-person merit committee. Leahy, a longtime senate judiciary committee member, used an equal system with three selections each made by his office, the junior senator and the state bar association.  The process proved to be non-partisan.

Vermont News First was told the committee will have at least six lawyers and likely all seven.

Nobody has been selected from the offices that deal with the federal judges on a day-to-day basis, including the court clerk’s office, the U.S. Marshal, U.S. Probation, U.S. Attorney or the Federal Defender.

Some committee members have served on earlier screenings, including “Shap” Smith, a Burlington lawyer and former House Speaker, David Silver, a Bennington defense lawyer, Barbara Prine of Vermont Legal Aid, and Eleanor “Ella” Spottswood, a senior staff attorney with Planned Parenthood and chair of the state Judicial Nominating Board. Spottswood was appointed to the JNB by the Vermont Bar Association, which appoints three members.

The applicant interviews are planned for late January with committee selections expected in February.

Sanders and Welch, in consultation with Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt. and the bar association, are expected to forward a couple of names to the White House. The White House will evaluate the recommendations.

The final nomination will be made by President Joe Biden, who has shown an interest nationally in naming women and other minorities to the bench. The U.S. Senate must confirm the appointment.

Crawford and Burlington lawyer John Pacht, who later was named a state judge, were the two names forwarded in 2014 by the advisory committee to the White House for the last district court vacancy.

Crawford has been the chief federal judge in Vermont since 2017.

Crawford, after a successful career in private practice, served as a state trial court judge from 2002 to 2013.  Gov. Peter Shumlin then picked him in 2013 to be elevated to the Vermont Supreme Court, a post he held until the President appointment as a federal judge in 2014. The U.S. Senate confirmed Crawford 95-0.

Lawyers interested in replacing Crawford had until Dec. 1 to fill out the elaborate 10-page questionnaire with multi-part detailed questions.  The completed application with the typed answers and various attachments, including legal rulings, newspaper clippings, published writings, and scripts of talks can easily run 100 pages or more.

Applicants also get a 1½-page list of issues that the FBI background check is likely to cover, including asking about any involvement in any group that advocates the use of force to overthrow the U.S. Government, or if the applicant has traveled to Cuba.

Three professional references and a personal statement also were required.

The judgeship, which pays $232,600 annually, is considered lucrative in Vermont and includes a lifetime appointment.

Crawford is the lone man among the four top fulltime federal judges in Vermont.

President Barack Obama nominated Christina Reiss of Essex as Vermont’s other fulltime District Court Judge in 2009.  Reiss, who presides in Burlington, was the first woman named to the federal bench in Vermont and served as the chief federal judge from 2010 to 2017.

Biden appointed Beth Robinson of Ferrisburgh to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in November 2021, replacing Judge Peter Hall of Rutland. The Second Circuit appointed Heather Z. Cooper of Rutland as the Bankruptcy Judge for Vermont in 2022.