In the ongoing saga of Galveston-based U.S. District Judge Sam Kent (previous posts here), the Executive Session of Judges of the Southern District of Texas issued a couple of administrative orders (here and here) transferring the duty station of Judge Kent from Galveston to Houston and delegating the handling of the Galveston docket to other U.S. District Judges of the Southern District. A related Chronicle article is here.
The order transferring Judge Kent’s duty station to Houston does not say when, if ever, Kent would be reassigned to Galveston. David Bradley, chief deputy clerk for the Southern District, told the Chronicle that Judge Kent will remain in Houston until a new order is issued to return him to Galveston. One of the above orders does put Judge Kent back into the case assignment rotation as he will receive 20% of the civil cases filed in the Houston Division. However, Judge Kent will not be assigned any criminal cases through Dec. 31, probably because he remains on leave until January, 8, 2008.