With all the new blood on the Federal Circuit these days, it has not taken long for some of the recent appointees to step into the role of presiding judge of various panels. Judge Wallach has already had that responsibility. Yesterday, even Judge Chen served as presiding judge in oral arguments. The other panel members on Judge Chen’s panel included Judge Hughes and Senior Judge Clevenger.
When a presiding judge is part of the majority of judges deciding a case, he or she assigns the judge who will author the opinion for the court. That is one reason that you often see the more senior judges authoring the majority opinions in high stakes en banc decisions — namely, the most senior judge in the majority assigned himself or herself to author the opinion.