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Bold Justice: January 21, 2019

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Alexander Hamilton may have thought them the least dangerous branch, but we at Ballotpedia think federal courts are the most exciting!

Ballotpedia's Bold Justice

Welcome to the January 21 edition of Bold Justice, Ballotpedia's newsletter about the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) and other judicial happenings around the U.S. Looking forward to more judicial news as you're settling into 2019? Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to the Daily Brew for the most up-to-date political information. We’re at the two-year anniversary of President Trump’s inauguration. In this issue, we’ll take a look at where judicial nominations stand at this juncture of his term.
We #SCOTUS so you don't have to

The Supreme Court will be back in session to hear arguments on Feb. 19. The court has heard 43 cases so far this term. As of publication, it has agreed to hear 75 cases. In its October 2017 term, SCOTUS heard arguments in 69 cases.

Click here to read more about SCOTUS' October 2018 term.
SCOTUS trivia

Since 2007, SCOTUS has issued opinions in 849 cases. Of those, it reversed a lower court’s decision 596 times (70.2 percent) while affirming a lower court’s decision 235 times (27.6 percent).

Fill in the blank: SCOTUS has decided more cases originating from the ___________ (167) than from any other circuit.

  1. 5th Circuit
  2. 9th Circuit
  3. 11th Circuit
  4. D.C. Circuit

Choose an answer to find out!
Federal Court action
 

Confirmations

The Senate has not confirmed any additional nominees since our Jan. 14 issue.

The Senate has confirmed 85 of President Trump’s judicial nominees—53 district court judges, 30 appeals court judges, and two Supreme Court justices since January 2017. That's an average of 42.5 judges per year.

Since 1977, the president with the most judges confirmed relative to his White House tenure is Jimmy Carter. The Senate approved an average of 65.5 of Carter’s judicial nominations per year during his one term in office.

The average judicial confirmations per year for the past six presidents:

  • Barack Obama: 41.7
  • George W. Bush: 42.5
  • Bill Clinton: 48.3
  • George H.W. Bush: 49.2
  • Ronald Reagan: 50.2
  • Jimmy Carter: 65.5

 For more information on federal judicial nominations by president, click here. 

New nominations

President Trump announced six nominations since our Jan. 14 edition. 

Trump has announced 167 Article III judicial nominations since taking office on Jan. 20, 2017. The president named 69 judicial nominees in 2017 and 92 in 2018. For more information on the president’s judicial nominees, click here.



At the sine die adjournment of the 115th Congress on Jan. 3, 2019, 31 nominees were awaiting a full Senate vote, 24 were awaiting a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 16 were awaiting a committee hearing. The president must renominate these 71 individuals to the 116th Congress if he wishes to move forward with their nominations. 

Vacancies

Trump inherited 108 Article III federal judicial vacancies requiring a presidential nomination when he was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2017. Not since Bill Clinton in 1993 has an incoming president had the opportunity to fill so many appointments to Article III courts at the start of an administration.

Of the 890 federal judgeships nationwide, 145 are currently vacant—slightly above the 140 monthly average seen between February 2017 and December 2018.

According to the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts, an additional 19 judges have announced their intention to leave active judicial status during Trump’s first term. Over half, or approximately 438, of the judges currently serving in the 870 Article III federal judicial positions will be eligible to take senior status by the end of 2020. Judges who move to senior status create new vacancies on the bench, so it’s possible that at the end of the president’s first term, 50.3 percent of Article III appointments could be vacant.

For more information on judicial vacancies during Trump's first term, click here. 

Committee action

The Senate Judiciary Committee did not report any new nominees out of committee since our Jan. 14 issue.

Love judicial nomination, confirmation, and vacancy information? We figured you might. Our monthly Federal Vacancy Count, published on the last Wednesday of each month, monitors all the faces and places moving in, moving out, and moving on in the federal judiciary.

Need a daily fix? Click here for continuing updates on the status of all federal judicial nominees.

Or, if you prefer, we also maintain a list of individuals President Trump has nominated.
A judge you oughta know

In each issue of Bold Justice, we highlight a federal court you should know more about. Right now, we’re taking a closer look at the 13 United States courts of appeals, or circuit courts.

In this edition,  we're upping our altitude at the 10th U.S. Court of Appeals, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. The 10th Circuit has jurisdiction over the eight U.S. District Courts in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming.

The 10th Circuit has 12 authorized judgeships. Democratic presidents appointed seven of the court's 12 current judges. There are no vacancies.

SCOTUS has heard 30 appeals of 10th Circuit decisions since 2007 and reversed 18 of them (60 percent).
Looking ahead

We'll be back with a new edition of Bold Justice Feb. 18, 2019.


Why subscribe to Bold Justice?

Stay on top of the whirlwind world of the federal judiciary


Need to stay on top of the whirlwind world of the federal judiciary of the United States?

Join us, counsel, as we lay the foundation for what happened this week in the world of federal courts. Our record will reflect the cases SCOTUS heard, which judges retired, which were nominated, and what important rulings come out of other federal courts. Call us as your next witness and get the most in-depth coverage of federal courts available to your inbox. Subscribe for free today.

Ballotpedia has been providing new areas of coverage, performing in-depth analyses, and developing new tools to help keep our readers in the know since 2006. This is one more resource to keep you informed—one that can be delivered to your inbox once a week.







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Why Bold Justice?

Well, there’s a story behind it, and we’re happy to credit Justice Samuel Alito for the inspiration. Back in October of 2014, Justice Alito joined his fellow Supreme Court Yale Law alumni, Justices Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor, for a panel as part of the law school’s alumni weekend (video below). During the discussion, the moderator asked the audience if they could guess which of the three justices on the panel served as the inspiration for a coffee house to name one of their blends of coffee, Bold Justice. Justice Alito responded, “Obviously, it’s me.”

He went on to tell the story of how, during his days as a Third Circuit judge, his law clerks participated in a Newark, New Jersey, coffee shop’s year-long promotion wherein if customers sampled every blend for one year, the customers could then create and name a blend of coffee. Justice Alito described Bold Justice as a blend that was “designed for about three o’clock in the afternoon if you’re working and you’re starting to fall asleep, if you have this, it will jolt you awake.” A blend of courts and coffee: sounds perfect to us!

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