County jurists eye federal bench

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker tmorgan@timesleader.comLaw & Order Reporter

Luzerne County Judges Joseph Van Jura and Joseph Cosgrove confirmed they are among the applicants seeking appointment to three open seats on the federal judiciary.

Van Jura

The judges, whose appointments to the Luzerne County bench will expire in December, made application for the federal seats to a 20-member review panel that was established in April by U.S. Sens. Robert Casey, D-Scranton and Pat Toomey, R-Zionsville.

The application is the second for Cosgrove. He applied in 2010, but failed to garner a recommendation from Casey and then-Sen. Arlen Specter. The senators instead recommended attorney Robert Mariani of Scranton and two other Scranton attorneys to President .

Obama nominated Mariani in January. He was approved last week by the Senate’s Judiciary Committee and is now awaiting the vote of the full Senate.

Cosgrove cited his experience in federal law in deciding to re-submit his application.

“I have extensive experience in litigation, a good deal of that at the federal level. I taught constitutional law for more than 20 years and now have a year and half trial judge experience. I’m asking to be considered again for nomination,” Cosgrove said.

Van Jura confirmed he is seeking a federal judgeship, but declined to comment further.

Van Jura and Cosgrove were appointed to the Luzerne County bench in 2010 to fill the unexpired terms of two former county judges who pleaded guilty to corruption charges. Van Jura filled the seat of Michael Toole, while Cosgrove filled Mark Ciavarella’s seat.

Both judges considered running for the full, 10-year terms for those seats that are up for election in November. They bowed out after questions arose regarding whether they had reneged on a promise not to seek the seats.

Van Jura and Cosgrove are hoping to fill two of the three seats in the federal court’s middle district that were left vacant when judges Richard Caputo and James Munley became senior judges and Thomas Vanaskie accepted an appointment as with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mariani’s unanimous approval by the Senate Judiciary committee virtually assures he will be appointed to one of the seats. The race for the other two remains open, however.

Two other attorneys who previously sought appointment, Barry Dyller of Wilkes-Barre and Joseph Musto of Pittston, said they decided not to resubmit their names.

Musto, 67, said he decided to opt out because of his age and the length of time involved in the nominating and confirmation process.

“The process is so long. You go through a screening, then the nomination and confirmation process. I realized at my age it was not logical for me to pursue it at this point,” he said.

Dyller said he decided he wanted to continue to focus on his private practice.

“I have an extremely busy private practice. I don’t want to give up my practice or the civil rights and other litigation work I do,” he said.

The deadline to apply for the open seats was July 15. The identity and number of applicants for the judicial seats positions has not been publicly released. It could not be determined when the nomination review panels created by Casey and Toomey will begin interviewing applicants.

Once the committees make their recommendations, the Senators will decide which persons they wish to recommend to President Obama. That person would then go before the Senate for confirmation.