Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 11/30/2011
November 30, 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 vacancy at the district court level due to a confirmation at the appellate level. The final tally leaves 79 vacancies or approximately 9.1% of the total Article III posts currently unfilled. This represents the lowest number of vacancies since our study has begun. 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 | 8.4% or 15 vacancies |
| District Courts00ccff | 9.4% or 64 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.
New confirmations
Second Circuit
On November 28, 2011 the United States Senate confirmed Christopher Droney to the United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit with a vote of 88-0.[1] At the time of appointment, Droney served as a federal judge for the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut where he has served for 14 years. He was rated Unanimously Well Qualified by the American Bar Association. He had a hearing before the Senate Judiciary committee on June 22, 2011 and you can find his Committee Questionnaire available here and his Questions for the Record available here.[2] Droney graduated from College of the Holy Cross with his bachelor's degree in 1976 and later graduated from University of Connecticut School of Law with his J.D. degree in 1979.[3] The confirmation fills the only vacancy on the court, lowering the vacancy warning level from Blue to Green.
New vacancies
District of Connecticut
The elevation of Christopher Droney to the United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit on November 28, 2011 created a new vacancy on the court.[4] The vacancy will be the only vacancy on the court of eight and will raise the vacancy from Green to Yellow.
==New nominations==There were no new appointments this past week.
See also
Footnotes
| |||||
