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The Federal Judicial Vacancy Count 12/1/2023

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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


December 1, 2023

Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for December 1, 2023! The Federal Vacancy Count tracks vacancies, nominations, and confirmations to all United States Article III federal courts.

This month's edition covers activity from November 2, 2023, through December 1, 2023, and compares Article III judicial appointments over time by president and by court type.[1][2]

HIGHLIGHTS
  • Vacancies: There were three new judicial vacancies since the November 1, 2023 report. There are 63 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, 64 of 890 active federal judicial positions were vacant.
  • Nominations: There were five new nominations since the previous report.[3]
  • Confirmations: There were 11 new 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 December 1, 2023

    The vacancy level was Bluedot.png in November 2023. The total vacancy percentage was 7.2 percent, and there were 63 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

    Three judges left active status. 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 January 1, 2023.

    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, 2023.


    U.S. District Court vacancies

    The following map shows the number of vacancies in the United States District Courts as of January 1, 2023.

    New nominations

    President Joe Biden (D) announced five new nominations since the previous report. On November 15, 2023, the president announced his intent to nominate the following individuals:

    Since taking office in January 2021, Biden has nominated 195 individuals to Article III positions.


    New confirmations

    There have been eleven new confirmations since the previous report:

    As of December 1, 2023, the Senate had confirmed 159 of President Biden's Article III judicial nominees—121 district court judges, 37 appeals court judges, and one Supreme Court justice—since his inauguration on January 20, 2021. To review a complete list of Biden's confirmed nominees, click here.


    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: end of first year in office, end of second year, December 1 of the third year, and end of the fourth year. It includes Presidents Ronald Reagan (R) through Joe Biden (D).

    • Presidents have made an average of 146.7 judicial appointments through December 1 of their third year in office.
    • President George W. Bush (R) made the most appointments through December 1 of his third year with 168. President Barack Obama (D) made the fewest with 119.
    • 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.
    • President Ronald Reagan (R) made the most appointments through one year in office with 41. President Barack Obama (D) made the fewest with 13.
    • President Bill Clinton (D) made the most appointments through two years with 128. President Barack Obama (D) made the fewest with 62.

    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 third year in office. The confirmations are broken up by court type.

    • The median number of Supreme Court appointees is one. Three presidents (Reagan, H.W. Bush, and Biden) made one appointment. Three presidents, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, made two. President George W. Bush did not appoint any SCOTUS justices by this point in his presidency.
    • The median number of United States Court of Appeals appointees is 29. President Trump had the most appointees with 48. President Reagan appointed the fewest with 23.
    • The median number of United States District Court appointees is 112. President George W. Bush had the most appointees with 138. President Obama appointed the fewest with 93.

    See also

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ The U.S. Courts website publishes data for the previous month on the first of the following month.
    2. ↑ U.S. Courts, "Judicial Vacancy List for December 2023," December 1, 2023
    3. ↑ For the purposes of this data, Ballotpedia considers the announcement of the intent to nominate an individual as a nomination.
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