Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 2/29/2012
February 29, 2012
- 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. This past week, two confirmations, one appellate and one district, aand one elevation have lowered the number of vacancies. The final tally leaves 81 vacancies or approximately 9.3% 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% or 16 vacancies |
| District Courts | 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.
New confirmations
Eastern District of New York
On February 27, 2012 the United States Senate confirmed Margo Brodie to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York with a vote of 86-2.[1] Brodie was originally appointed by Barack Obama to the post on June 7, 2011 to fill the seat vacated by Allyne Ross. At the time of appointment, Brodie was a Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York. She was rated Majority Qualified, Minority Well Qualified by the American Bar Association. She had a hearing before the Senate Judiciary committee on September 7, 2011 and you can find her Committee Questionnaire available here and her Questions for the Record available here.[2] The confirmation fills one of two vacancies on the court of fifteen, lowering the vacancy warning level from Yellow to Blue.
New vacancies
There were no new vacancies in the federal courts this past week.
New nominations
There were no new judicial nominations during the past week.
See also
Footnotes
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