In our opinion: Key changes to the Utah federal court judiciary team

Salt Lake City's new federal courthouse is quickly taking shape and taking its place as a striking addition to the city's growing skyline. The new building may or may not have revolving doors, but the judiciary it will soon house has recently seen a significant entrance and exit of key personnel.

A longtime and extremely well-respected magistrate judge has retired, just as the district's newest federal judge has taken the oath of office.

Judge Samuel Alba left the bench this month to extend his legal career in the service of a private law firm. For 20 years, Alba presided over a large and diverse roster of cases — some high profile, most routine — with a common touch and an uncommon intelligence. A former prosecutor, he could project a stern judicial temperament, however tempered from time to time by what his colleagues describe as a mischievous sense of humor.

He is the product of a remarkable family that migrated from Mexico to find seasonal work on farmlands around the U.S. The family eventually settled in the West and saw to it that the future judge and his several siblings were well-educated. That he became Utah's first Latino federal judge is as much a testament to one family's quest to find a successful life for its children as it is to the growing diversity of the Alba's adopted home state.

As Alba vacates the federal bench, Judge David Nuffer moves in. Having served as the court's chief magistrate, Nuffer is known as an innovator in the use of courtroom technology, something that will be better accommodated in the new state-of-the-art courthouse.

That building was more than 20 years in the planning. Nuffer's appointment fills a vacancy that opened three years ago. Both timelines are evidence of a chronic intransigence plaguing the administration of the federal judiciary.

The nonpartisan Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts declared a series of "judicial emergencies" in many of its districts, defined by severe backlogs in the disposition of cases, largely because of delays in hiring new judges. The process of judicial appointment has been buffeted by the winds of contentious politics in Washington, and the Utah federal courts are among those most adversely affected.

Now, there is hope that the logjam, if not broken, is at least abated. A new judge will help. The impressive new building symbolizes the critical place a healthy federal judiciary holds in the function of our society.

Critical to the health of the judiciary is the talent and dedication of its personnel, epitomized by the careers — past and future — of Judge Alba and Judge Nuffer.