Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 11/2/2011
November 2, 2011
- For a District by District break down, see: Federal Court Vacancy Warning System
The current vacancy warning level for the U.S. District courts is set at Blue and is unchanged from last week. There was one additional confirmation at the appellate level, lowering the vacancy warning level for the U.S. Appellate Courts to Blue for the first time in three weeks. The final tally leaves 82 vacancies or approximately 9.4% of the total Article III posts currently unfilled. The vacancy information for the various court levels is as follows:
| Key: | |
| (Percentage of seats vacant.) | |
| 0% | 1%-9% |
| 10%-24% | 25%-40% |
| More than 40% | |
| Supreme Court | 0% or no vacancies |
| Appeals Courts | 9.5% or 17 vacancies |
| District Courts00ccff | 9.6% or 65 vacancies |
There are currently 9 Supreme Court posts, 179 appellate court posts and 680 district court posts for a total of 868 Article III judges. This count includes four temporary posts, one each in the Northern District of Alabama, District of Arizona, Southern District of Florida and the Central District of California. This also includes a shared post between the two Missouri districts and counts it as two posts with separate vacancies. There are currently 53 pending appointments in the Senate leaving 35% of the vacant posts without an appointment. So far this year there have been 54 confirmations.
Monthly map
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New confirmations
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
On October 31, 2011 the United States Senate confirmed Stephen Higginson to the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit with a vote of (88-0). He was orginally appointed by Barack Obama on May 4, 2011 to fill the seat vacated by Jacques Wiener.[1] At the time of his appointment, Higginson served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Louisiana. Higginson was rated Unanimously Well Qualified by the American Bar Association. He had a hearing on June 8, 2011. You can find his Committee Questionnaire available here and his Questions for the Record available here.[2] The confirmation fills the only vacancy on the court of seventeen, lowering the vacancy warning level from Blue to Green. The vacancy also lowers the vacancy warning level for the U.S. Appellate Courts to Blue for the first time in three weeks.
New vacancies
There were no new vacancies in the past week.
New nominations
There were no new appointments in the past week. However, there was one withdrawal sent to the Senate.
District of Maryland
On October 31, 2011 Barack Obama withdrew the nomination of Charles Day.[3] Day had originally been appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Maryland on July 21, 2010 and was rated Unanimously Well Qualified by the American Bar Association. He had yet to receive a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[2] There is no news as to why the nomination was withdrawn.
See also
Footnotes
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