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The Federal Judicial Vacancy Count 12/1/2021

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December 1, 2021

Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for November 2021! The Federal Vacancy Count tracks vacancies, nominations, and confirmations to all United States Article III federal courts.

This month's edition covers activity during the month of November through December 1 and compares Article III judicial appointments over time by president and by court type.

HIGHLIGHTS
  • Vacancies: There have been two new judicial vacancies since the October 2021 report. There are 74 vacancies out of 870 active Article III judicial positions on courts covered in this report. Including the United States Court of Federal Claims and the United States territorial courts, 78 of 890 active federal judicial positions are vacant.
  • Nominations: There were 11 new nominations since the October 2021 report.[1]
  • Confirmations: There were no new confirmations since the October 2021 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 December 1, 2021

    The vacancy level remained at blue in November 2021. The total vacancy percentage was 8.5 percent, and there were 74 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

    Two 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 Joe Biden (D) to the date indicated on the chart.

    Maps

    The following maps show the number of vacancies on the United States Court of Appeals at the inauguration of President Joe Biden (D) and as of December 1, 2021.


    U.S. District Court vacancies

    The following map shows the number of vacancies in the United States District Courts as of December 1, 2021.

    New nominations

    President Joe Biden (D) has announced 11 new nominations since the October 2021 report.


    New confirmations

    There have been no new confirmations since the October 2021 report.

    As of December 1, 2021, the Senate has confirmed 28 of President Biden's judicial nominees—19 district court judges and nine appeals court judges—since January 2021.


    Comparison of Article III judicial appointments over time by president

    See also: Federal judicial appointments by president


    The chart below details the number of Article III judicial appointments during each president's first term at four specific dates: on their inauguration day (January 20th), December 1 of the first year, December 31 of the first year, and December 31 of the fourth year. It includes Presidents Ronald Reagan (R) through Joe Biden (D).

    • The average number of judicial appointees per president through December 1 of the first year is 21.
    • President Ronald Reagan (R) made the most appointments through his first year with 41. President Barack Obama (D) made the fewest with 13.
    • President Donald Trump (R) made the most appointments through four years with 234. President Ronald Reagan (R) made the fewest through four years with 166.

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

    See also: Federal judicial appointments by president

    The chart below shows the number of Article III judges confirmed by the U.S. Senate under each of the last seven presidents as of December 1 of their first year in office. The confirmations are broken up by court type.

    President Biden made the second-most Article III judicial appointments by this point in a presidency, 28, compared to his predecessors since January 1981. President Bill Clinton (D) also made 28 appointments. President Ronald Reagan (R) made the most with 30. President Barack Obama (D) made the fewest appointments with 11.

    • The median number of Supreme Court appointees is one. Four presidents (Reagan, Clinton, Obama, and Trump) made one appointment. Three presidents (H.W. Bush, W. Bush, and Biden) had not appointed any.
    • The median number of United States Court of Appeals appointees is five. Presidents Trump and Biden appointed the most with nine. Presidents Clinton and Obama appointed the fewest with three.
    • The median number of United States District Court appointees is 13. President Clinton appointed the most with 24. President Trump appointed the fewest with six.




    See also

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ For the purposes of this data, Ballotpedia considers the announcement of the intent to nominate an individual as a nomination.
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