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The Federal Vacancy Count 4/25/2018

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



April 25, 2018

Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for April 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 March 30, 2018, to April 25, 2018.[1][2]

HIGHLIGHTS
  • Vacancies: There were four new judicial vacancies since the March 2018 report. There are 149 vacancies out of 890 active judicial positions on courts covered in this report.
  • Nominations: There were 20 new nominations since the March 2018 report.
  • Confirmations: There were four new confirmations since the March 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 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 April 25, 2018

    The vacancy warning level remained at yellow this month. The total vacancy percentage was 16.7 percent and there were 149 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 10.6% or 19 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.

    New nominations

    President Donald Trump announced 20 new nominations since the March 2018 report.

    New confirmations

    Since March 30, 2018, the United States Senate has confirmed four more of President Trump's nominees to Article III seats. As of April 25, 2018, the Senate has confirmed 32 of President Trump’s judicial nominees.

    Monthly map

    See also

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ 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.
    2. ↑ Four judges on U.S. district courts are commissioned to serve ten-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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