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The Federal Vacancy Count 12/26/2018
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December 26, 2018
Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for December 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 29, 2018, to December 26, 2018.
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 December 26, 2018
The current vacancy level remained at yellow December. The total vacancy percentage was 16.1 percent and there were 143 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 | 6.7% or 12 vacancies |
| District Courts | 677 | 17.4% or 118 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 Thomas Vanaskie elected to take senior status on the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.
- Judge Richard Story elected to take senior status on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
- Judge Laurie Smith Camp elected to take senior status on the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska.
- Judge Joy Conti elected to take senior status on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
- Judge Gray Miller elected to take senior status on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
- Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich elected to take senior status on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
New nominations
President Donald Trump (R) did not announce any new nominations since the November 2018 report.
New confirmations
Since November 29, 2018, the United States Senate confirmed one more of President Trump's nominees to Article III seats. As of December 26, 2018, the Senate has confirmed 85 of President Trump’s judicial nominees.
- Jonathan Kobes, confirmed to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.
Monthly map
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
Footnotes
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