Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 5/28/2014
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May 28, 2014
This week's Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count includes nominations, confirmations and vacancies from May 21, 2014 to May 27, 2014. Nominations, confirmations and vacancies occurring on May 28th will be reflected in the June 4th report.
The vacancy warning level remained at blue this week after no new vacancies and one confirmation. The vacancy percentage fell to 7.7%. There were no new nominations this week, which allowed the total number of nominees waiting for confirmation to fall to 32. The number of vacancies of Article III judges fell to 67 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.
This week saw the confirmation of David Barron to the First Circuit. Barron's nomination came under fire when memos he co-wrote, while he was a lawyer at the Office of Legal Council, provided legal standing for a drone strike that killed an American citizen.[1]
Vacancies by court
| Court | # of Seats | Vacancies |
| Supreme Court | 9 | 0% or no vacancies |
| Appeals Courts | 179 | 5.6% or 10 vacancies |
| District Courts | 677 | 8.4% or 57 vacancies |
| All Judges | 865 | 7.7% or 67 vacancies |
New vacancies
There were no new vacancies this week.
New confirmations
First Circuit
Senator Ted Cruz spoke out against Barron's confirmation on the Senate floor.
David Barron
| The United States Senate confirmed David Barron to the United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit on May 22, 2014, by a vote of 53-45. Barron's confirmation was passed largely on party lines with two Democrats, Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Joe Manchin III (D-WV), joining the Republican no votes.[2] His nomination was drawn in to question when legal opinions he co-wrote lead to a drone strike that killed American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki.[1] Barron leaves his position as Harvard's S. William Green Professor of Public Law to join the First Circuit Court of Appeals. His prior experience includes working at the United States Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel and law clerking for Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. He obtained a B.A. and J.D. from Harvard. Barron joins the court 240 days after his nomination, filling a vacancy created by Michael Boudin who took senior status on June 1, 2013. The confirmation removes the only vacancy on the United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit. The vacancy warning level fell from yellow to green. | 
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New nominations
There were no new nominations this week.
Weekly map
The weekly map is updated every week and posted here and on the Federal Court Vacancy Warning System analysis page.
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See also
Footnotes
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