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The Federal Vacancy Count 1/31/2018

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



January 31, 2018

Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for January 2018! 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 29, 2017, to January 31, 2018.[1][2]

HIGHLIGHTS
  • Vacancies: There were seven new Article III life-term judicial vacancies since the December 2017 report. Judge Glen Conrad elected to take senior status on the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia beginning on December 11, 2017. Judge Alex Kozinski elected to retire from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on December 18, 2017. There are 140 vacancies out of 870 active judicial positions on courts covered in this report.
  • Nominations: There were twelve new Article III life-term nominations since the December 2017 report.
  • Confirmations: There were five new Article III life-term confirmations since the December 2017 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 only 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 process of filling a vacancy is prescribed by the Constitution. The president nominates a candidate, who then must be confirmed by the United States Senate.

    Vacancy Count for January 31, 2018

    The vacancy warning level remained at yellow this month. The total vacancy percentage was 16.1 percent and there were 140 vacancies out of 870 Article III life-term 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 10.06% or 18 vacancies
    District Courts 673 17.83% or 120 vacancies
    International Trade 9 22.2% or 2 vacancies
    All Article III life-term judicial positions 870 16.1% or 140 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 announced the nominations of twelve additional candidates for Article III seats:

    New confirmations

    Since December 28, 2017, the United States Senate has confirmed five of President Trump's nominees to Article III seats:

    All five will take their seats upon receipt of their judicial commissions and taking their judicial oaths. As of January 31, 2018, the Senate has confirmed 24 of President Trump’s judicial nominees.

    Monthly map

    See also

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ As of July 2017, Ballotpedia's Federal Vacancy Count includes nominees to all courts in which nominees are commissioned to serve a life-term. The map used in this report, however, includes information from U.S. district courts.
    2. ↑ Four judges on U.S. district courts are commissioned to serve ten-year terms on their respective courts. These are judges to the District Court of Guam, the District Court of the Virgin Islands, and the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
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