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The Federal Vacancy Count 6/4/2018

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



June 4, 2018

Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for May 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 April 25, 2018, to June 4, 2018.[1][2]

HIGHLIGHTS
  • Vacancies: There were four new judicial vacancies since the April 2018 report. There are 148 vacancies out of 890 active judicial positions on courts covered in this report.
  • Nominations: There were 19 new nominations since the April 2018 report.
  • Confirmations: There were seven new confirmations since the April 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 June 4, 2018

    The vacancy warning level remained at yellow this month. The total vacancy percentage was 16.7 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 7.8% or 14 vacancies
    District Courts 677 18.6% or 126 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 19 new nominations since the April 2018 report.

    • Ryan Nelson, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
    • Gary R. Brown, to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
    • Diane Gujarati, to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
    • Eric Komitee, to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
    • Rachel Kovner, to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
    • Lewis Liman, to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
    • Corey Maze, to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
    • John Sinatra, to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.
    • Mary Kay Vyskocil, to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
    • Joshua Wolson, to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
    • A. Marvin Quattlebaum Jr., to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
    • Julius Richardson, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
    • Richard Sullivan, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
    • Roy Altman, to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
    • Thomas Barber, to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
    • Rodolfo Ruiz, to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
    • Rodney Smith, to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
    • T. Kent Wetherell, to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
    • Richard Hertling, to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims

    New confirmations

    Since April 25, 2018, the United States Senate has confirmed seven more of President Trump's nominees to Article III seats. As of June 4, 2018, the Senate has confirmed 39 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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