N.Y. federal judge who rescinded retirement still won't step down

(Reuters) - A New York federal judge who rescinded his plans to take senior status unless his successor lived in Utica on Wednesday said he would not step aside even after a nominee to fill his would-be vacant seat indicated he would work out of that city's courthouse.

U.S. District Judge David Hurd in a letter to President Joe Biden apologized for any inconvenience he was causing but stressed that he had "unconditionally withdrawn my previously expressed intention regarding senior status."

His decision to not take senior status, a form of semi-retirement, would appear to doom Biden's nomination of Jorge Rodriguez to become the first Hispanic judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.

Hurd's decision marked the latest instance of federal judges conditioning their decisions to retire or step down from active service on presidents making specific nomination decisions, which has prompted calls for the judiciary to put an end to the practice.

Biden on July 13 nominated Rodriguez, an assistant attorney general in New York Attorney General Letitia James' Albany office, to fill a vacancy that had been created by Hurd's announcement in November that he planned to take senior status.

But a day after the nomination, Hurd, 85, wrote to Biden that he would no longer take senior status unless his successor lived in the area around Utica and was permanently assigned to its federal courthouse, where Hurd is the sole judge.

After news of the letter broke Monday, an aide to Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who recommended Rodriguez, said the nominee was committed to sitting in the Utica courthouse, whose preservation was "important" to the New York senator.

But Hurd, an appointee of former Democratic President Bill Clinton, on Wednesday said his decision to not leave his life-tenured post was firm and unconditional. He gave no reason for why and did not reference Rodriguez's plans.

"I intend to remain on regular active status at the U.S. Courthouse in Utica for the foreseeable future," Hurd wrote.

Rodriguez and representatives for the White House and Gillibrand did not respond to requests for comment.

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