Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 9/11/2013

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

September 11, 2013

By Courtney Collins

The vacancy warning level remains at yellow this week after two confirmations by the U.S. Senate, lowering the vacancy percentage to 10.6%. There were no new nominations or transitions to senior status in the past week, allowing the total number of vacancies of Article III judges to fall to 92 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	11.1% or 75 vacancies
All Judges	865	10.6% or 92 vacancies

New confirmations

Southern District of New York

Valerie Caproni

On September 9, 2013, Valerie Caproni was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on a vote of 73-24. Caproni's confirmation was not without controversy. Prior to her nomination she was general counsel for the FBI, from 2003 to 2011, during which time the FBI came under bipartisan scrutiny about illegal wiretapping. She responded to the concerns in a letter to Richard Durbin: “ I would certainly recuse myself if I were presented with a case that would require me to rule on the legality of a national security program as to which I provided legal advice while I was a government employee, unless there was controlling precedent already in place regarding such a program. ” —Valerie Caproni Caproni was nominated on November 15, 2012 by Barack Obama to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by Richard Holwell. Caproni was rated "Unanimously Well Qualified" by the American Bar Association. She had a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 23, 2013. You can find her Committee Questionnaire available here and her Questions for the Record available here. This confirmation along with the confirmation of Vernon Broderick lowers the vacancy warning level for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from Yellow to Blue.

Vernon Broderick

On September 9, 2013, Vernon Broderick was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on a voice vote. Broderick was a partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP from 2005 until his confirmation. On April 15, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Vernon Broderick to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to fill the vacancy left by Deborah Batts. Obama commented on the nominations, stating: “ I am proud to nominate this outstanding candidate to serve on the United States District Court bench. Vernon Broderick has a long and distinguished record of service, and I am confident he will serve on the federal bench with distinction. ” —Barack Obama Broderick was rated "Unanimously Well Qualified" by the American Bar Association. He had a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 23, 2013 and you can find his Committee Questionnaire available here and his Questions for the Record available here. This confirmation along with the confirmation of Valerie Caproni lowers the vacancy warning level for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from Yellow to Blue.

New vacancies

There were no new vacancies this past week.

New nominations

There were no new nominations this past week.

Weekly map

The new weekly map feature will be updated every week and posted here and on the vacancy warning level analysis page.

See also

• United States federal courts

Footnotes