Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 6/6/2012
June 6, 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. There was one new confirmation this week, leaving the final tally at 69 vacancies or approximately 7.9% 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 | 7.3% or 13 vacancies |
| District Courts | 8.2% or 56 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.
Weekly map
The new weekly map feature will be updated every week and posted here and on the vacancy warning level analysis page.
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New confirmations
District of Massachusetts
On June 4, 2012, the United States Senate confirmed Timothy Hillman to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts with a vote of 88-1.[1][2] Hillman was originally appointed on November 30, 2011 by Barack Obama to the seat vacated by Nancy Gertner. At the time of appointment, Hillman was a federal magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Worcester Division). Hillman was rated Unanimously Well Qualified by the American Bar Association. He had a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 15, 2012 and you can find his Committee Questionnaire available here and his Questions for the Record available here.[3] The confirmation fills one of two vacancies on the court of thirteen, lowering the vacancy warning level from Yellow to Blue.
New vacancies
There were no new judicial vacancies this past week.
New nominations
There were no new nominations this week.
See also
Footnotes
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