Senate OKs Limbaugh judgeship

Missouri Supreme Court Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. spent much of Tuesday watching television at his Cape Girardeau home.

He wasn't catching up on soap operas. Instead, he had his set tuned to C-SPAN, where he watched the U.S. Senate voted unanimously by voice vote confirm him and Judge Greg Kays of Lebanon to seats on the federal bench.

Limbaugh, 56, will take a seat on federal court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Kays, presiding judge of the 26th Judicial Circuit, will take a seat on the Western District court.

"It was anticlimactic," said Limbaugh, a 16-year veteran of Missouri's highest court. "My little nomination took about 10 seconds."

Limbaugh was unsure about the timing of his transition from the state appellate bench to the federal courts. His father, senior U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh Sr., must wind up his cases and take full retirement from the federal bench under rules that bar close relatives from serving on the same court. And Limbaugh himself must complete the annual workload of the Missouri Supreme Court, writing opinions and voting on cases.

Limbaugh said he expects both to complete their work by mid- to late July.

"The situation is bittersweet on two counts," Limbaugh said. "I love the work of the court, with the honor of hearing the most important and novel and interesting legal issues of the day. I will leave colleagues on the court who I have worked with for 16 years now. The other bittersweet part is that he has to resign. But he has plans of his own he is planning to announce later."

Limbaugh Sr. is 80, his son noted. And like Rush H. Limbaugh Sr., whose name graces the federal courthouse that opened last week in Cape Girardeau, "he won't ever retire."

The confirmation process for both Missouri nominees has been free of controversy, despite political wrangling over judicial candidates in other parts of the country. Kays was nominated in November and Limbaugh in December.

Both judges had the full support of Missouri's U.S. senators, Republican Kit Bond and Democrat Claire McCaskill. They are replacing judges who took senior status last year and now hear a reduced case load.

"It should stand as an example of what the nominations process can be -- a minority party and an opposition president producing bipartisan nominations approved unanimously by the [Judiciary] Committee and now considered without delay by the full Senate," Bond said.

Limbaugh said he plans to hear cases in both Cape Girardeau and St. Louis, and he hopes to handle the bulk of cases brought to the bar in Cape Girardeau. The caseload in the southern division of the district is larger than the average caseload for judges in the district, he noted.

Limbaugh hopes to persuade the other judges in the district to assign him permanently to Cape Girardeau. "You can hardly imagine the unprecedented honor of someone presiding in a courthouse named for his grandfather by an act of Congress," he said.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126

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