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The Federal Judicial Vacancy Count 8/1/2021

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August 1, 2021

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

This month's edition covers July 2 to August 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 June 2021 report. There are 80 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, 84 of 890 active federal judicial positions are vacant.
  • Nominations: There were no new nominations since the June 2021 report.[1]
  • Confirmations: There was one confirmation since the June 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 August 1, 2021

    The vacancy level remained at blue in July 2021. The total vacancy percentage was 9.2 percent, and there were 80 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 August 1, 2021.


    U.S. District Court vacancies

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

    New nominations

    President Joe Biden (D) has announced no new nominations since the June 2021 report.


    New confirmations

    As of August 1, 2021, the Senate has confirmed eight of President Biden's judicial nominees—five district court judges and three 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), August 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 August 1 of the first year is three.
    • 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 August 1 of their first year in office. The confirmations are broken up by court type.

    President Biden made the most Article III judicial appointments by this point in a presidency, eight, compared to his predecessors since January 1981. Presidents Bill Clinton (D) and Barack Obama (D) were the only presidents under study who had not made an appointment by this point in their presidencies.

    • The median number of Supreme Court appointees is zero. President Trump appointed the most with one.
    • The median number of United States Court of Appeals appointees is one. Presidents Trump and Biden appointed the most with three. Presidents Reagan, Clinton, and Obama appointed the fewest with zero each.
    • The median number of United States District Court appointees is two. Biden appointed the most with five. Presidents Clinton and Obama appointed the fewest with zero.




    See also

    Footnotes

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