Magistrate Judge
PUBLIC NOTICE
FOR APPOINTMENT OF NEW MAGISTRATE JUDGES UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS (TWO POSITIONS)
(Available January 2019 and March 2019)
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois is seeking qualified applicants for two full-time positions for United States Magistrate Judge for its Court in East St. Louis, Illinois.
These full-time positions will replace the incumbents United States Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Williams who leaves on January 1, 2019, and United States Magistrate Judge Donald G. Wilkerson who retires on March 1, 2019. One position will be available on January 2, 2019, and the other position will be available on March 2, 2019.
The duties of the position are demanding and wide-ranging and include:
- conduct most preliminary proceedings in criminal cases;
- conduct trial and disposition of misdemeanor cases;
- conduct various pretrial matters and evidentiary proceedings on delegation from a district judge; and
- conduct trial and disposition of civil cases upon consent of the litigants
The basic authority of a United States magistrate judge is specified in 28 U.S.C. § 636.
To be qualified for appointment an applicant must
- Be, and have been for at least five years, a member in good standing of the bar of the highest court of a state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Territory of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or the Virgin Islands of the United States, and have been engaged in the active practice of law for a period of at least five years (with some substitutes authorized);
- Be competent to perform all the duties of the office; be of good moral character; be emotionally stable and mature; be committed to equal justice under the law; be in good health; be patient and courteous; and be capable of deliberation and decisiveness;
- Be less than seventy years old; and
- Not be related to a judge of the district court.
A merit selection panel composed of attorneys and other members of the community will review all applications and recommend to the district judges in confidence the six persons it considers best qualified. The court will make the appointment following an FBI full-field investigation and an IRS tax check of the applicant selected by the court for appointment. An affirmative effort will be made to give due consideration to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, age (40 and over), gender, religion, national origin, or disability. The current annual salary of the position is $191,360. The term of office is eight years.
An application form and more information on the magistrate judge position in this court may be obtained on the court’s website at www.ilsd.uscourts.gov. The form is also available from the office of the clerk by contacting Justine Flanagan, Acting Clerk of Court, at (618) 482-9373. Confidential applications (original plus 15 copies) must be submitted by applicants and must be received by 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 15, 2018, to:
United States District Court
c/o Merit Selection Panel
“PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL”
750 Missouri Avenue
East St. Louis, Illinois 62201
In addition, please email a pdf copy of the complete application to justine_flanagan@ilsd.uscourts.gov. The subject line should read “PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL – Merit Selection Panel”.
All applications will be kept confidential, unless the applicant consents to disclosure, and all applications will be examined only by members of the merit selection panel and the judges of the district court. The panel’s deliberations will remain confidential.