The Federal Vacancy Count 11/28/2018

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

November 28, 2018

Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for November 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 November 1, 2018, to November 28, 2018.

HIGHLIGHTS

Vacancies: There were three new judicial vacancies since the October 2018 report. There are 136 vacancies out of 890 active judicial positions on courts covered in this report.

Nominations: There was one new nomination since the October 2018 report.

Confirmations: There were no new confirmations since the October 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 November 28, 2018

The vacancy warning level remained at yellow this month. The total vacancy percentage was 15.2 percent and there were 136 vacancies out of 890 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	6.1% or 11 vacancies
District Courts	677	16.5% or 112 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.

• Judge Robert Kugler elected to take senior status on the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
• Judge Manuel Real elected to take senior status on the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
• Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange elected to take senior status on the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

New nominations

President Donald Trump announced one new nomination since the October 2018 report.

• Neomi Rao, to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

New confirmations

Since October 31, 2018, the United States Senate has not confirmed any more of President Trump's nominees to Article III seats. As of November 28, 2018, the Senate has confirmed 84 of President Trump’s judicial nominees.

See also

• United States federal courts
• Current federal judicial vacancies
• Six-month checkup on federal judicial vacancies during Trump's first term
• Judicial vacancies during the Trump administration
• The Trump administration on federal courts