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Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 10/23/2013
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October 23, 2013
The vacancy warning level remains at yellow this week after no changes in the judiciary, keeping the vacancy percentage at 10.5%. There were no new nominations or confirmations this week, allowing the total number of nominees waiting for confirmation to remain at 50. There were no vacancies this week, keeping the total number of vacancies of Article III judges at 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 |
Article I news
Article I courts are not covered in the vacancy count, and therefore do not affect it.
Article I vacancies
Court of Federal Claims
Emily C. Hewitt
| On October 21, 2013, Emily C. Hewitt left the United States Court of Federal Claims after her 15-year term expired. Hewitt was appointed by President Bill Clinton on October 22, 1998, and elevated to the Chief Judge position in 2009, where she served until her term's expiration. Patricia Campbell-Smith has been appointed to fill the Chief Judge role and no replacement for Hewitt has been nominated. Hewitt was the first openly gay chief judge of the court.[1] Hewitt's term expiration creates one vacancy on the United States Court of Federal Claims. The vacancy level has risen from green to blue. | 
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New vacancies
There were no new vacancies in the past week.
New confirmations
There were no new confirmations in the past week.
New nominations
There were no new nominations in the past 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
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