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The Federal Vacancy Count 9/26/2018

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



September 26, 2018

Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for September 2018! The Federal Vacancy Count tracks vacancies, nominations, and confirmations to all United States Article III federal courts.

This month's edition includes nominations, confirmations, and vacancies from August 29, 2018, to September 26, 2018.

HIGHLIGHTS
  • Vacancies: There were five new judicial vacancies since the August 2018 report. There are 142 vacancies out of 890 active judicial positions on courts covered in this report.
  • Nominations: There were no new nominations since the August 2018 report.
  • Confirmations: There were eight new confirmations since the August 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 September 26, 2018

    The vacancy warning level remained at yellow this month. The total vacancy percentage was 16.0 percent and there were 142 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 11.1% or 1 vacancies
    Appeals Courts 179 7.3% or 13 vacancies
    District Courts 677 17.0% or 115 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 did not announce any new nominations since the August 2018 report.

    New confirmations

    Since August 29, 2018, the United States Senate has confirmed eight more of President Trump's nominees to Article III seats. As of September 26, 2018, the Senate has confirmed 68 of President Trump’s judicial nominees.

    Monthly map

    See also

    Footnotes

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