Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 8/21/2013
August 21, 2013
- For a District by District break down, see: Federal Court Vacancy Warning System
The vacancy warning level for the U.S. Federal courts is currently set at Yellow. There were two new vacancies this past week, leaving the final tally at 89 vacancies or approximately 10.2 percent of the total Article III posts currently unfilled. The vacancy information for the various court levels is as follows:
| Key: | |
| (Percentage of seats vacant.) | |
| 0% | 1%-9% |
| 10%-24% | 25%-40% |
| More than 40% | |
| Supreme Court | 0 percent or no vacancies |
| Appeals Courts | 9.5 percent or 17 vacancies |
| District Courts | 10.6 percent or 72 vacancies |
There are currently 9 Supreme Court posts, 179 appellate court posts and 681 district court posts for a total of 869 Article III judges. This count includes four temporary posts, one each in the District of Columbia, Northern District of Alabama, District of Arizona, Southern District of Florida and the Central District of California. This also includes two shared post between the two Missouri districts and the two Kentucky districts, which count as two posts with separate vacancies.
Weekly map
The new weekly map feature will be updated every week and posted here and on the vacancy warning level analysis page.
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New confirmations
There were no new confirmations this past week.
New vacancies
Western District of Pennsylvania
On August 16, 2013, Judge Sean McLaughlin resigned from the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, where he had served for over 19 years.[1] McLaughlin was originally nominated by Bill Clinton and joined the court on October 11, 1994. He was Chief Judge of the court in 2013. At the time of his nomination, he was a private practice attorney in Erie, Pennsylvania. McLaughlin graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, DC with his bachelor's degree in 1977 and his J.D. in 1980.[2] His transition to senior status creates the second vacancy on the court of five, raising the vacancy warning level from Green to Yellow.
Sixth Circuit
On August 16, 2013, Judge Boyce Martin retired from the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, where he had served for almost 34 years.[3] Martin was originally nominated by Jimmy Carter and joined the court on September 26, 1979. He was Chief Judge of the court from 1996 until 2003. At the time of his nomination, he was a judge for the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Martin graduated from Davidson College with his bachelor's degree in 1957 and later graduated from University of Virginia School of Law with his J.D. in 1963.[2] His transition to senior status creates the first vacancy on the court of sixteen, raising the vacancy warning level from Green to Blue.
New nominations
There were no new nominations this past week.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ U.S. Courts Current Vacancies
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Judge McLaughlin's Biography from the Federal Judicial Center. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "bio" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ U.S. Courts Current Vacancies
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