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Avisiting judge is a judge appointed to hear a case as a member of a court to which he or she does not ordinarily belong. InUnited States federal courts, this is referred to as an assignment "by designation" of the Chief Justice of the United States (for inter-circuit assignments) or theCircuit Chief Judge (for intra-circuit assignments), and is authorized by28 U.S.C. § 292 (for active district judges) or28 U.S.C. § 294 (for retired justices and judges).[1][2]
In manyUnited States Courts of Appeals it is not uncommon for adistrict judge to sit on a panel as a visiting judge; less frequently it is a judge from another circuit (in active service or, more commonly, insenior status). Retired Supreme Court justices have done the same, including JusticesSandra Day O'Connor,[3]David Souter, andStephen Breyer,[4] and very unusually, sitting justices (in 1984, for example,JusticeWilliam Rehnquist served as a visiting judge for ajury trial in theUnited States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia).[5] This is sometimes done to ease caseload pressures, and sometimes (as in Rehnquist's case) for experience.[6] In other cases, notably those of some judges in senior status, the individual may sit in a different court for personal reasons (such as sitting in areas popular with retirees such as Florida or in a person's hometown).[citation needed]
A United States federal district judge's anecdotal description of the designation process: Let's say you are prosecuting or defending a criminal or civil case in your local federal district court, and, out of the blue, your case get reassigned. Not only do you have new judge, but the new judge is a senior status district judge from far away.... How does that happen? Here's a primer.