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Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 1/29/2014

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FederalVacancy yellow.png
Key:
(Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.)
0%1%-9%
10%-24%25%-40%
More than 40%



January 29, 2014

By Courtney Collins

This week's Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count includes nominations, confirmations and vacancies from January 22, 2014 to January 28, 2014. Nominations, confirmations and vacancies occurring on January 29th will be reflected in the February 5th report.

The vacancy warning level remained at yellow this week after no new vacancies and no new confirmations. The vacancy percentage remained at 11.0%. There were no new nominations this week, which allowed the total number of nominees waiting for confirmation to remain at 58. The number of vacancies of Article III judges remained at 94 out of 865. A breakdown of the vacancies on each level can be found in the table below. For a more detailed look at the vacancies on the federal courts, see our Federal Court Vacancy Warning System.

Vacancies by court

Court # of Seats Vacancies
Supreme Court 9 0% or no vacancies
Appeals Courts 179 8.9% or 16 vacancies
District Courts 677 11.7% or 79 vacancies
All Judges 865 11.0% or 95 vacancies

District of Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee hearings

On January 28, 2014, the six nominees to the United States District Court for the District of Arizona received a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[1] Among these nominees is Rosemary Marquez who was nominated in June of 2011. Prior to the hearing, no other current nominee had waited as long for a committee hearing.[2] The hold up of the nominees was linked to Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake and their previous choice to not turn in their blue slips.[3] Representative Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) commented on Marquez's persistence:
“ She stuck with it, she didn’t pull out, and I’m very grateful to the Obama administration for not pulling her name when it would have been an expedient to do so. They’re closer now to the realization of that position now than ever. I feel good about it.[4] ”


The United States District Court for the District of Arizona currently has six vacancies and is considered to be a judicial emergency.[5] The court has two seats that have sat vacant for over three years. The vacancy warning level is currently set at red.

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New confirmations

There were no new confirmations this week.

New vacancies

There were no new vacancies this week.

New nominations

There were no new nominations this week.

Weekly map

The weekly map is updated every week and posted here and on the vacancy warning level analysis page.

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See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Senate Judiciary Committee, "Judicial Nomination," January 28, 2014
  2. ↑ National Law Journal, "Judicial Nominee Gets Confirmation Hearing After Two Years," January 24, 2014
  3. ↑ KJZZ, "Flake Lifts Block On Five Judicial Nominees," January 14, 2014
  4. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  5. ↑ U.S. Courts, "Judicial Emergencies," accessed January 28, 2014
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