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The Federal Vacancy Count 3/30/2018
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March 30, 2018
Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for March 2018! The Federal Vacancy Count tracks vacancies, nominations, and confirmations to all United States Article III federal courts, the United States Court of Federal Claims, and the district courts for the Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
This month's edition includes nominations, confirmations, and vacancies from February 28, 2018, to March 30, 2018.[1][2]
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 March 30, 2018
The vacancy warning level remained at yellow this month. The total vacancy percentage was 16.6 percent, and there were 148 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 | 10.05% or 18 vacancies |
| District Courts | 677 | 18.02% or 122 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 William Pauley elected to take senior status on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
- Judge Richard Tallman elected to take senior status on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- Judge Louis Guirola elected to take senior status on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi.
- Judge Stephen Reinhardt on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit passed away.
New nominations
President Donald Trump did not announce any new nominations since the February 2018 report.
New confirmations
Since February 28, 2018, the United States Senate has confirmed four more of President Trump's nominees to Article III seats. As of March 30, 2018, the Senate has confirmed 29 of President Trump’s judicial nominees.
- Terry A. Doughty, confirmed to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana
- Karen Gren Scholer, confirmed to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
- Tilman E. Self III, confirmed to a seat on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia
- A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr., confirmed to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina
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
- ↑ As of March 2018, Ballotpedia's Federal Vacancy Count includes nominees to all courts in which nominees are commissioned to serve a life term, as well as the United States Court of Federal Claims, and the district courts for the Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The map used in this report, however, includes information from U.S. district courts.
- ↑ Four judges on U.S. district courts are commissioned to serve 10-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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