Call For Congressional Inquiry Into Self-Proclaimed Seventh Circuit Judicial Crisis

Following the two recent deaths of over-worked members of the judiciary in Indianapolis, Indiana, the sudden resignation of the "Tenth Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court" over treatment of pro se litigants in the Seventh Circuit, as well as the re-assignment of two magistrate judges from the Wisconsin Federal Court to the mountainous backup of cases in Indianapolis, I surmise and opine that a Congressional Inquiry is needed on an urgent, if not emergent basis.

The Seventh Federal Circuit is comprised of district courts located in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. Average case loads per magistrate or Article III judge has been increasing due to vacancies on the federal court system as well as due to increased filings. Many Article III judges are on senior status in the Seventh Circuit and elsewhere. Senior status is meant to mean a lower case load than those Article III judges who are on active full-time status.

In Indianapolis, Indiana, Article III judge Sarah Evans Barker has been on senior status for a few years now while waiting for a replacement via Presidential nomination and Congressional approval. Her young administrative judge, Denise K. LaRue, who was sworn-in in 2011, struggled under a staggering caseload of cases assigned to Judge Barker and those assigned to her either by referral or by 28 U.S. Code Section 636, prior to her untimely death last month. United States District Court Judge Larry J. McKinney died suddenly this week while working at senior status in Indianapolis.

Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard A. Posner (a.k.a. the 10th jurist of the U.S. Supreme Court), an Article III appellate judge, retired abruptly the first week of September 2017, prior to his 80th birthday when he had intended to retire and gave the single reason for abrupt resignation as a dispute with his colleagues over poor treatment of pro se litigants. "He had suddenly realized, he said, that people without lawyers are mistreated by the legal system, and he wanted to do something about it," as reported by Adam Liptak of the New York Times. (September 11, 2017).

My life has been touched by the legal decisions of Magistrate Judge Denise K. LaRue, Judge Sarah Evans Barker, and by those of Appellate Judge Richard A. Posner. I have standing to demand such a congressional inquiry as the outcomes in my pro se civil cases in Indianapolis, Indiana did not follow stare decisis ignoring well-established case law of the Seventh Circuit as well as well-established case law of the United States Supreme Court. The United States Supreme Court did not grant my petition for a writ of certiorari.

It is clear that the Seventh Circuit is over-loaded, its judiciary replete with numerous vacancies, and that the decisions rendered by many of its judges ignore vital evidence and eschew relevant well-established case law supporting the pro se litigant's positions. My hat is off to former Appellate Judge Richard A. Posner for standing up for the civil rights of the self-represented litigants of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Enough is enough. Congress must investigate the Seventh Circuit's decisions and listen carefully to the remarks of former Judge Richard A. Posner.