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The Federal Vacancy Count 12/28/2016
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December 28, 2016
By Kevin Eirich
This month's Federal Vacancy Count includes nominations, confirmations, and vacancies from December 1, 2016, to December 27, 2016. Nominations, confirmations, and vacancies occurring on December 28, 2016, will be reflected in the January 2017 report. All pending federal judicial nominees will be returned to President Barack Obama at the sine die adjournment of the 114th Congress in early January 2017.[1]
The vacancy warning level remained at yellow this month after one new vacancy was announced. The total vacancy percentage was 11.57 percent, and there were 114 vacancies out of 985 positions. There were no new nominations from President Barack Obama since the November 2016 update. The total number of nominees waiting for Senate confirmation is 67, including nominees to the United States Court of International Trade, United States Court of Federal Claims, the United States Tax Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The remaining 46 federal vacancies represent positions where a nominee has not been named by the president.
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, see Ballotpedia's Federal Court Vacancy Warning System. The Federal Court Vacancy Warning System presents information on current Article III judicial vacancies in the federal court system, as well as the status of pending nominees to the federal bench.
Vacancies by court
| Court | # of Seats | Vacancies |
| Supreme Court | 9 | 11.1% or 1 vacancy |
| Appeals Courts | 179 | 7.8% or 14 vacancies |
| District Courts | 677 | 12.4% or 84 vacancies |
| International Trade | 9 | 22.2% or 2 vacancies |
| Federal Claims | 16 | 37.5% or 6 vacancies |
| Tax Court | 19 | 10.5% or 2 vacancies |
| Armed Forces | 5 | 0% or 0 vacancies |
| D.C. Court of Appeals | 9 | 11.1% or 1 vacancy |
| D.C. Superior Court | 62 | 6.4% or 4 vacancies |
| All Judges | 985 | 11.57% or 114 vacancies |
New vacancies
The following judge vacated his active status, creating an Article III judicial vacancy. As an Article III judicial position, this vacancy must be filled by a nomination from the president. That nomination is subject to confirmation on the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate.
United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee
| Todd Campbell is a federal judge on senior status with the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. A native of Rockford, Illinois, Campbell graduated from Vanderbilt University with his bachelor's degree in 1978 and from the University of Tennessee College of Law with his J.D. in 1982. Campbell was nominated to the district court by President Bill Clinton on June 27, 1995, to a seat vacated by Thomas Wiseman, who elected to take senior status. The American Bar Association rated Campbell Substantial Majority Qualified, Minority Well Qualified for the nomination. Hearings on Campbell's nomination were held before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on October 24, 1995, and his nomination was reported by U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on November 9, 1995. Campbell was confirmed on a voice vote of the U.S. Senate on December 22, 1995, and he received his commission on December 26, 1995. From 2005 to 2012, Campbell served as chief judge of the district court. He elected to take senior status due to a certified disability on December 1, 2016. The current vacancy warning level of this court is yellow. As of this report, the district court has one vacancy. Under current law, the court has a total of four active judicial positions.[2][3][4] | 
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New nominations
There have been no new federal judicial nominations since our November 2016 update.
New confirmations
There have been no new federal judicial confirmations by the U.S. Senate since our November 2016 update.
Monthly map
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See also
- United States federal courts
- Federal Court Vacancy Warning System
- Supreme Court vacancy, 2016: An overview
Footnotes
- ↑ As of December 2016, Ballotpedia's Federal Vacancy Count includes nominees to the United States Court of International Trade, United States Court of Federal Claims, the United States Tax Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Vacancy, confirmation, and nomination totals will be changed accordingly. The map used in this report, however, does not include information from these courts at this time.
- ↑ Federal Judicial Center, "Biographical directory of federal judges," accessed December 8, 2016
- ↑ American Bar Association, "Ratings of Article III judicial nominees, 104th Congress," accessed December 8, 2016
- ↑ United States Congress, "PN 477 — Todd J. Campbell — The Judiciary," accessed December 1, 2016
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