The Federal Vacancy Count 4/15/2015

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

April 15, 2015

By Courtney Collins

This week's Federal Vacancy Count includes nominations, confirmations and vacancies from April 8, 2015, to April 14, 2015. Nominations, confirmations and vacancies occurring on April 15 will be reflected in the April 22 report.

The first confirmation by the 114th Congress came 102 days into the new year. There are four nominees awaiting votes from the full Senate.

The vacancy warning level remained at blue this week after no new vacancies, no new nominations and one new confirmation. The vacancy percentage fell to 6.2 percent, and the total number of nominees waiting for confirmation fell to 17. The number of vacancies of Article III judges fell to 54 out of 874. A breakdown of the vacancies on each level can be found in the table below. For a more detailed look at the vacancies on the federal courts, see our Federal Court Vacancy Warning System.

Vacancies by court

Court	# of Seats	Vacancies
Supreme Court	9	0% or no vacancies
Appeals Courts	179	4.5% or 8 vacancies
District Courts	677	6.2% or 42 vacancies
International Trade	9	44.4% or 4 vacancies
All Judges	874	6.2% or 54 vacancies

New vacancies

There were no new vacancies in the past week.

New confirmations

Southern District of Texas

Al Bennett

On April 13, 2015, the Senate confirmed Al Bennett to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas on a vote of 95-0. Prior to being confirmed, Bennett was a judge for the 61st District of Texas from 2009 to 2015. His other experience includes 10 years as an adjunct professor of law at Texas Southern University, 10 years as a sole practitioner and seven years as an attorney at the law firms of Solar & Fernandes LLP and Fulbright & Jaworski LLP. Bennett earned his B.S. from the University of Houston in 1988 and his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1991. Bennett's confirmation fills the vacancy created by Kenneth Hoyt, who took senior status on March 2, 2013. The seat was vacant for 772 days. The confirmation removes one of the five vacancies on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The vacancy warning level fell from orange to yellow.

New nominations

There were no new nominations in the past week.

Current judicial emergencies

The following table is a list of judicial emergencies. The website of the United States Courts defines a judicial emergency as follows:

“

Circuit Courts Any vacancy in a court of appeals where adjusted filings per panel are in excess of 700; or Any vacancy in existence more than 18 months where adjusted filings are between 500 to 700 per panel. District Court Any vacancy where weighted filings are in excess of 600 per judgeship; or Any vacancy in existence more than 18 months where weighted filings are between 430 to 600 per judgeship; or Any court with more than one authorized judgeship and only one active judge.

”

Circuit/District	Vacancy created by	Reason	Vacancy date	Days pending	Weighted filings per judgeship*	Adjusted filings per panel*
02 - NYE	Nicholas Garaufis	Senior status	10/1/2014	195	680
02 - NYE	Sandra Feuerstein	Senior status	1/21/2015	83	680
03 - NJ	William Martini	Senior status	2/10/2015	63	659
03 - NJ	Joel Pisano	Retired	2/16/2015	57	659
03 - NJ	Faith Hochberg	Retired	3/6/2015	39	659
Third Circuit Court of Appeals	Anthony Scirica	Senior status	7/1/2013	652		551
04 - NCE	Malcolm Howard	Senior status	12/31/2005	3391	609
04 - SC	Cameron Currie	Senior status	10/3/2013	558	437
05 - TXE	Richard Schell	Senior status	3/10/2015	35	1226
05 - TXN	Terry Means	Senior status	7/3/2013	650	581
05 - TXS	Janis Jack	Senior status	6/1/2011	1413	571
05 - TXS	Hilda Tagle	Senior status	12/31/2012	834	571
05 - TXW	Robert Junell	Senior status	2/13/2015	60	651
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals	Emilio Garza	Senior status	8/1/2012	986		939
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals	Carolyn King	Senior status	12/31/2013	469		939
06 - TNM	William Haynes	Senior status	12/1/2014	134	686
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals	Boyce Martin	Retired	8/16/2013	606		546
07 - INS	Sarah Barker	Senior status	6/30/2014	288	658
09 - CAC	Audrey Collins	Retired	8/1/2014	256	663
09 - CAE	Anthony Ishii	Senior status	10/31/2012	895	1006
11 - ALM	Myron Thompson	Senior status	8/22/2013	600	511
11 - FLS	Robin Rosenbaum	Elevated	5/12/2014	337	710
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals	Joel Dubina	Senior status	10/26/2013	538		885
*Adjusted filings per panel and weighted filings per judgeship are calendar year data.

Weekly map

The weekly map is updated every week and posted here and on the Federal Court Vacancy Warning System analysis page.

See also

• United States federal courts
• Federal Court Vacancy Warning System

Footnotes