The Third Circuit announced today that it has created a new award, the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Award for Exemplary Service to the Third Circuit, and Biden himself will be the first recipient. Chief Judge D. Brooks Smith will present the award at a judges’ meeting on October 18 in Wilmington, Delaware.

The new award “recognizes outstanding service in promoting the cause of justice and the work of the courts within the Third Judicial Circuit.” Future recipients will be announced at the circuit conference.

Chief Judge Smith gave this statement:

I am extremely pleased that Vice President Biden has agreed to accept the inaugural award which will bear his name. As a veteran U.S. Senator and as a former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Vice President Biden has for decades been a friend, supporter, and defender of an independent federal judiciary. Over those years, his commitment to the courts and judges within the Third Circuit has been unflinching. This is a small way for the Third Circuit family to say ‘thank you.’

(Do I think it’s irrelevant that Biden was a leading Senate opponent of Chief Judge Smith’s own nomination? No, I do not.)