Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 3/26/2014
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March 26, 2014
This week's Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count includes nominations, confirmations and vacancies from March 19, 2014 to March 25, 2014. Nominations, confirmations and vacancies occurring on March 26th will be reflected in the April 2nd report.
The vacancy warning level rose to yellow this week after one new vacancy and no new confirmations. The vacancy percentage rose to 10.1%. There were no new nominations this week, which allowed the total number of nominees waiting for confirmation to remained at 53. The number of vacancies of Article III judges rose to 87 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 | 9.0% or 16 vacancies |
| District Courts | 677 | 10.5% or 71 vacancies |
| All Judges | 865 | 10.1% or 87 vacancies |
New vacancies
Eastern District of Virginia
James Spencer
| On March 25, 2014, James Spencer took senior status. Spencer was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in 1986. He served as the chief judge from 2004 to 2011.[1] In February of 2014, Spencer was the presiding judge in a case that involved the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Plaintiffs wanted the ACA state subsides to only be available to residents with state run exchanges. This was because the ACA subside caused them to not be qualified for a financial-hardship exemption. Judge Spencer dismissed the case stating it was not a viable theory.[2]
Hannah Lauck is nominated to fill the vacancy. James Spencer's transition creates the only vacancy on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The vacancy warning level rose from green to blue. |
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Passings
Third District Court of Appeals
Joseph Weis, Jr.
On March 19, 2014, Joseph Weis (Third Circuit) passed away at the age of 91. At the time of his passing he was a judge on senior status for the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. Weis first joined the federal judiciary after a nomination by President Richard Nixon to fill a vacancy on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Three years after joining the Western District of Pennsylvania he was nominated to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals where he served for 15 years before taking senior status. Judge Weis served the courts for just under 41 years. Samuel Alito commented on his work alongside of Weis:
The United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit currently has two vacancies. The vacancy warning level is set at yellow. |
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Southern District of New York
Lawrence Walsh
| On March 19, 2014, Lawrence Walsh passed away at the age of 102. Walsh was nominated by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1954 to sit on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was only a member of the court for 3 years when he resigned to become a Deputy United States Attorney in 1957. From 1986 to 1993, Walsh was an Independent Counsel for the Iran-Contra Investigation. His investigation of the Iran-Contra affair was extremely thorough and led to a number of convictions, but in the end many of the convictions were overturned while others were pardoned by President George H.W. Bush who was Vice President at the time of the affair.[5]
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York currently has no vacancies. The vacancy warning level is set at green. |
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New confirmations
There were no new confirmations 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
- ↑ FJC.gov, "Spencer, James Randolph," accessed March 25, 2014
- ↑ Washington Times, "Federal judge in Va. delivers setback for legal theory about Obamacare subsidies," February 19, 2014
- ↑ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "Obituary: Joseph F. Weis Jr. / Judge celebrated in court, on battlefield," March 19, 2014
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ New York Times, "Lawrence E. Walsh, Prosecutor in Iran-Contra Scandal, Dies at 102," March 20, 2014
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