Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 10/16/2013

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

October 16, 2013

By Courtney Collins

The vacancy warning level remains at yellow this week after two confirmations, lowering the vacancy percentage to 10.5%. There were no new nominations this week allowing the total number of nominees waiting for confirmation to drop to 50. There were two confirmations this week, allowing the total number of vacancies of Article III judges to fall to 91 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.

Example tables

Court	# of Seats	Vacancies
Supreme Court	9	0% or no vacancies
Appeals Courts	179	9.5% or 17 vacancies
District Courts	677	10.9% or 74 vacancies
All Judges	865	10.5% or 91 vacancies

New vacancies

There were no new vacancies this past week.

New confirmations

Northern District of Alabama

Madeline Haikala

On October 16, 2013, Madeline Haikala was confirmed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama on a U.S. Senate vote of 90-0. She fills a vacancy created by Inge Johnson's transition to senior status. Prior to her confirmation she was a federal magistrate judge for the same district. Haikala had this to say about her confirmation, “ I would like to express my sincere gratitude to President Obama for his nomination... I am very grateful too to Senator Sessions, Senator Shelby, and Congresswoman Sewell for their generous support throughout the confirmation process. Finally, I would like to thank Chief Judge (Sharon) Blackburn and the members of the court for their wonderful support and encouragement... I look forward to serving the court and the people of Alabama in this new capacity. It is an honor to be a member of this Court and to work with and learn from my outstanding colleagues on the bench. ” Haikala's confirmation fills one of the two vacancies on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. The vacancy warning level remains at yellow.

Northern District of Illinois

Andrea R. Wood

Andrea R. Wood was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 14, 2013 on a voice vote to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Her confirmation, at age 40, makes her the youngest federal judge in history. From 2007 until her confirmation, she was Senior Trial Counsel for the Division of Enforcement at U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The vacancy Wood is filling was created when William Hibbler passed away on March 20, 2012. Wood had this to say about her confirmation, “ It has been an honor first to be nominated by the president and now to be confirmed by the Senate... I’m delighted to have the opportunity to serve alongside the judges of the Northern District of Illinois for whom I have great respect. ” Wood's confirmation lowers the number of vacancies for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois from two to one, leaving only Manish Shah awaiting confirmation. The vacancy warning level for the district remains at blue.

New nominations

There were no new nominations this past week.

Weekly map

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

See also

• United States federal courts

Footnotes