The Federal Judicial Vacancy Count 5/1/2025
May 1, 2025
Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for May 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 April 2, 2025, through May 1, 2025, and compares Article III judicial appointments over time by president and by court type through May 1 of their first year in office.[1]
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 May 1, 2025
The vacancy level was 
in April 2025. The total vacancy percentage was 5.2 percent, and there were 45 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
One judge left active status, creating an Article III life-term judicial vacancy, 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.
- Judge Sharion Aycock assumed senior status on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.
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 May 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 May 1, 2025.
U.S. District Court vacancies
The following map shows the number of vacancies in the United States District Courts as of May 1, 2025.
New nominations
President Donald Trump (R) announced one new nomination since the previous report. On May 1, 2025, the president announced his intent to nominate the following individual:
Since taking office for his second term in January 2025, President Donald Trump (R) made one Article III judicial nomination.
New confirmations
There were no new confirmations since the previous report.
As of May 1, the Senate has not confirmed any of President Trump's judicial nominees 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
- Presidents have made an average of 0.1 judicial appointments through May 1 of their first year in office.
- From Ronald Reagan (R) through Donald Trump (R), one president (President Trump) made Article III judicial appointments through May 1 of their first year.
- President Joe Biden (D) made the most appointments through four years with 235. President Ronald Reagan (R) made the fewest through four years with 166.
- President Bill Clinton (D) made the most appointments through two years with 128. President Barack Obama (D) made the fewest with 62.
- President Ronald Reagan (R) made the most appointments through one year in office with 41. President Barack Obama (D) made the fewest with 13.
Comparison of Article III judicial appointments over time by president and court type
The table and chart below show the number of Article III judges confirmed by the U.S. Senate under each of the last seven presidents as of May 1 of their first year in office. The confirmations are broken up by court type.
- The median number of Supreme Court appointees is 0.
- The median number of United States Court of Appeals appointees is 0.
- The median number of United States District Court appointees is 0.
See also
- United States federal courts
- Current federal judicial vacancies
- Judicial vacancies during the Trump administration
- The Trump administration on federal courts
Footnotes
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