Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 7/13/2011
July 13, 2011
- For a District by District break down, see: Federal Court Vacancy Warning System
The current vacancy warning level for the U.S. Federal courts is set at Yellow and is unchanged from last week despite one additional transition to senior status at the district court level. Approximately 10.1 percent of the total Article III posts are currently left 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 percent or no vacancies |
| Appeals Courts | 9.5 percent or 17 vacancies |
| District Courts | 10.4 percent or 71 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. There are currently 58 pending appointments in the Senate leaving 35 percent of the vacant posts without an appointment. So far this year there have been 28 confirmations.
New confirmations
There were no new confirmations this past week.
New vacancies
Central District of California
On July 11, 2011 Judge Howard Matz of the United States District Court for the Central District of California assumed senior status after serving on the court for 13 years.[1] Originally appointed by Bill Clinton, Matz received his A.B. from Columbia University in 1965 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1968. The open seat will create the second vacancy in a district with 28 posts, keeping the vacancy warning level set at Blue.
New nominations
No new Article III confirmations this past week.
See also
Footnotes
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