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The Federal Judicial Vacancy Count 10/1/2025

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U.S. Federal Courts
Judicial vacancies during the Trump administration
Judicial vacancies in federal courts • Judicial vacancies during the Trump administration • Federal judges nominated by Donald Trump • Federal judicial appointments by president
ABA ratings of presidential federal judicial nominees • ABA ratings during the Trump administration • ABA ratings during the Biden administration


October 1, 2025

Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for October 1, 2025! The Federal Vacancy Count tracks vacancies, nominations, and confirmations to all United States Article III federal courts.

This month's edition covers activity from September 2, 2025, through October 1, 2025, and compares Article III judicial appointments over time by president and by court type through October 1 of their first year in office.[1]

HIGHLIGHTS
  • Vacancies: There were four new judicial vacancies since the September 1, 2025 report. There are 51 vacancies out of 870 active Article III judicial positions in courts covered in this report. Including the United States Court of Federal Claims and the United States territorial courts, 52 of 890 active federal judicial positions were vacant.
  • Nominations: There were no new official nominations since the previous report.[2]
  • Confirmations: There were three confirmations since the previous report.

    • What's a vacancy?

    A vacancy occurs when a judge resigns, retires, takes senior status, or dies. Article III judges refer to judges who serve on courts authorized by Article III of the Constitution, which created and enumerated the powers of the judiciary. Article III judges are appointed for life terms. Unless a judge is impeached and removed from office—something that has occurred eight times in the history of the federal judiciary—it is the judge's decision how long they remain on the court. When judges decide to leave active duty, they may either retire completely from the court or take senior status.

    To take senior status, judges must meet certain age and service requirements. Senior status is a classification for federal judges at all levels who are semi-retired. Senior judges continue to serve on federal courts while hearing a reduced number of cases. Both a decision to retire and a decision to take senior status trigger a vacancy.

    The Constitution prescribes the process of filling a vacancy. The president nominates a candidate, who then must be confirmed by the United States Senate. There are multiple steps to the process:

    • The president nominates an individual for a judicial seat.
    • The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing with the nominee.
    • After the hearing, the Senate Judiciary Committee votes to approve or return the nominee.
    • If approved, the Senate holds a vote on the candidate.

    For more information on this process, click here.

    Vacancy count for October 1, 2025

    The vacancy level was Bluedot.png in September 2025. The total vacancy percentage was 5.9 percent, and there were 51 vacancies out of 870 Article III judicial positions.

    A breakdown of the vacancies at each level can be found in the table below. For a more detailed look at the vacancies on the federal courts, click here.

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


    Though the United States territorial courts are named as district courts, they are not Article III courts. They are created in accordance with the power granted under Article IV of the U.S. Constitution. Click here for more information.


    New vacancies

    Four judges left active status, creating Article III life-term judicial vacancies, since the previous vacancy count. As Article III judicial positions, vacancies must be filled by a nomination from the president. Nominations are subject to confirmation on the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate.


    U.S. Court of Appeals vacancies

    Chart

    The following chart tracks the number of vacancies on the United States Court of Appeals from the inauguration of President Donald Trump (R) to October 1, 2025.

    Maps

    The following maps show the number of vacancies on the United States Court of Appeals at the inauguration of President Donald Trump (R) and as of October 1, 2025.


    U.S. District Court vacancies

    The following map shows the number of vacancies in the United States District Courts as of October 1, 2025.

    New nominations

    President Donald Trump (R) announced no new nominations since the previous report.

    Since taking office for his second term in January 2025, President Donald Trump (R) made 27 Article III judicial nominations.


    New confirmations

    There have been three new confirmations since the previous report.

    As of October 1, the Senate has confirmed eight of President Trump's judicial nominees—six district court judges, two appeals court judges, no Court of International Trade judges, and no Supreme Court justices—since January 2025. To review a complete list of Trump's confirmed nominees from both presidential terms, click here.


    Comparison of Article III judicial appointments over time by president

    The chart below details the number of Article III judicial appointments during each president's second term at four specific dates: end of first year in office, end of second year, October 1 of the first year, and Dec. 1 of the fourth year. It includes Presidents Bill Clinton (D) through Donald Trump (R).
    • Presidents have made an average of 17.3 judicial appointments through October 1 of their first year in office.
    • President Bill Clinton (D) made the most appointments through four years with 174. President George W. Bush (R) made the fewest through four years with 122.
    • President Barack Obama (D) made the most appointments through two years with 134. President George W. Bush (R) made the fewest with 54.
    • President Barack Obama (D) made the most appointments through one year in office with 45. President George W. Bush (R) made the fewest with 22.

    Comparison of Article III judicial appointments over time by president and court type

    See also: Federal judicial appointments by president

    The table and chart below show the number of Article III judges confirmed by the U.S. Senate under each president since Bill Clinton as of October 1 of their first year and second term in office. The confirmations are broken up by court type.

    • The median number of Supreme Court appointees is 0. No president had appointed any SCOTUS justices by this point in his presidency.
    • The median number of United States Court of Appeals appointees is 5.5. President Obama had the most appointees with 9. President Trump appointed the fewest with 2.
    • The median number of United States District Court appointees is 9.5. President Obama had the most appointees with 21. President W Bush appointed the fewest with 4.

    See also

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ The U.S. Courts website publishes data for the previous month on the first of the following month.
    2. ↑ For the purposes of this data, Ballotpedia considers the announcement of the intent to nominate an individual as a nomination.
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