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The Federal Judicial Vacancy Count 6/26/2019

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



June 26, 2019

Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for June 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 May 30, 2019, to June 26, 2019, and comparisons of Article III judicial appointments over time by president and by court type.

HIGHLIGHTS
  • Vacancies: There have been three new judicial vacancies since the May 2019 report. There are 118 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, 127 of 890 active federal judicial positions are vacant.
  • Nominations: There have been three new nominations since the May 2019 report.
  • Confirmations: There have been 11 new confirmations since the May 2019 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 June 26, 2019

    The current vacancy level remained at yellow in June. The total vacancy percentage was 13.6 percent and there were 118 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 2.8% or 5 vacancies
    District Courts
    (Including territorial courts)[1]     		677 16.1% or 109 vacancies
    International Trade 9 44.4% or 4 vacancies


    New vacancies

    The following judges vacated their active status, 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 subject to confirmation on the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate.[2]


    Monthly maps

    U.S. circuit courts


    U.S. district courts


    New nominations

    President Donald Trump (R) has announced three new nominations since the May 2019 report.[3][4]

    • Halil Ozerden, to the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
    • John Kness, to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
    • Justin Walker, to the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.


    New confirmations

    Since May 30, 2019, the United States Senate confirmed 11 of President Trump's nominees to Article III seats. As of June 26, 2019, the Senate has confirmed 123 of President Trump’s judicial nominees.


    Appointments by court type

    The following chart details the number of appointments, or confirmed nominations, Trump made to each type of federal court as of July 1, 2019.

    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 first term at three specific dates: December 31 of the first year, December 31 of the second year, and July 1 of the third year. It includes Presidents Theodore Roosevelt (R) through Donald Trump (R).

    • The median number of judicial appointees per president for the first three years through July 1 is 66.5.
    • President John Kennedy (D) made the most appointments through his first year with 56. President Calvin Coolidge (R) made the fewest with none.
    • President Bill Clinton (D) made the most appointments through two years with 128. President Theodore Roosevelt (R) made the fewest through two years with eight.
    • Clinton also made the most appointments through July 1 of year three with 154. President T. Roosevelt made the fewest at that point with 18.

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

    As of July 2019, the breakdown of Article III judges is as follows:

    • Supreme Court of the United States: 9 justices
    • United States court of appeals: 179 judgeships
    • United States district court: 677 judgeships
    • United States Court of International Trade: 9 judgeships

    The table and chart below show the number of Article III judges confirmed by the U.S. Senate under each of the last 20 presidents on or before July 1 of their third years in office. The confirmations are broken up by court type.

    See also

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ 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.
    2. ↑ United States Courts, "Current judicial vacancies," accessed June 26, 2019
    3. ↑ WhiteHouse.gov, "President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees," June 11, 2019
    4. ↑ WhiteHouse.gov, "President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees and United States Attorney Nominee," June 19, 2019
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