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The Federal Judicial Vacancy Count 2/6/2019

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



February 6, 2019

Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for January 2019! The Federal Vacancy Count tracks vacancies, nominations, and confirmations to all United States Article III federal courts.

This month's edition includes nominations, confirmations, and vacancies from December 27, 2018, to February 6, 2019.

HIGHLIGHTS
  • Vacancies: There were six new judicial vacancies since the December 2018 report. There are 138 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, there are 149 vacancies out of 890 active federal judicial positions.
  • Nominations: There were seven new nominations and 57 renominations since the December 2018 report.
  • Confirmations: There were no new confirmations since the December 2018 report.


    • What's a vacancy?

    A vacancy occurs when a judge resigns, retires, takes senior status, or passes away. Article III judges are appointed for life terms. 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. Unless a judge is impeached and removed from office—something that has occurred eight times in the history of the federal judiciary—it is entirely up to the judge 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.

    Vacancy count for February 6, 2019

    The current vacancy level remained at yellow in January. The total vacancy percentage was 15.9 percent and there were 138 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.

    Vacancies by court

    Court # of Seats Vacancies
    Supreme Court 9 0% or 0 vacancies
    Appeals Courts 179 6.7% or 12 vacancies
    District Courts 677 18.3% or 124 vacancies
    International Trade 9 22.2% or 2 vacancies


    New vacancies

    The following judges vacated their active statuses, creating Article III life-term judicial vacancies. As Article III judicial positions, these vacancies must be filled by a nomination from the president. Nominations are then subject to confirmation on the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate.

    New nominations

    President Donald Trump (R) renominated 57 individuals whose nominations were returned to him at the sine die adjournment of the 115th Congress on January 3, 2019. In addition, the president announced seven new nominations since the December 2018 report.

    • Daniel Bress, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
    • Greg Guidry, to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
    • James Wesley Hendrix, to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
    • Sean Jordan, to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
    • Michael Liburdi, to the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.
    • Mark Pittman, to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
    • Peter Welte, to the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota.


    New confirmations

    Since December 26, 2018, the United States Senate did not confirm any of President Trump's nominees to Article III seats. As of February 6, 2019, the Senate has confirmed 85 of President Trump’s judicial nominees.


    Monthly map

    See also

    Footnotes

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