The Federal Judicial Vacancy Count 12/1/2025

• Supreme Court
  • Associate Justice
  • Supreme Court of the United States
  • Supreme Court cases, October term 2024-2025
  • Supreme Court cases, October term 2023-2024
  • Supreme Court cases, October term 2022-2023
  • Supreme Court cases, October term 2021-2022
  • Supreme Court cases, October term 2020-2021
  • Supreme Court cases, October term 2019-2020
  • Supreme Court cases, October term 2018-2019
  • Supreme Court cases, October term 2017-2018
  • Supreme Court cases, October term 2016-2017
  • Supreme Court cases, October term 2015
  • History of the Supreme Court
  • Chief Justice Eras
  • Historic cases
• Courts
  • United States Court of Appeals
  • United States District Court
  • United States Bankruptcy Court
  • Subject-matter jurisdiction courts
  • United States territorial courts
• District of Columbia
  • Washington, D.C.
  • District of Columbia Court of Appeals
  • Superior Court of the District of Columbia
  • Judicial selection in Washington, D.C.
• Federal vacancies
  • Current federal judicial vacancies
  • By Congress
  • By Year
  • Archived vacancy counts
• Presidential nominations
  • Presidential nominations
  • Federal judicial nominations by president
  • President pages
    • Washington
    • Adams
    • Jefferson
    • Madison
    • Monroe
    • Quincy Adams
    • Jackson
    • Van Buren
    • Harrison
    • Tyler
    • Polk
    • Taylor
    • Fillmore
    • Pierce
    • Buchanan
    • Lincoln
    • A. Johnson
    • Grant
    • Hayes
    • Garfield
    • Arthur
    • Cleveland
    • Harrison
    • McKinley
    • T. Roosevelt
    • Taft
    • Wilson
    • Harding
    • Coolidge
    • Hoover
    • F. Roosevelt
    • Truman
    • Eisenhower
    • Kennedy
    • L. Johnson
    • Nixon
    • Ford
    • Carter
    • Reagan
    • H.W. Bush
    • Clinton
    • W. Bush
    • Obama
    • Trump
    • Biden
• About
  • United States federal courts

December 1, 2025

Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for December 1, 2025! The Federal Vacancy Count tracks vacancies, nominations, and confirmations to all United States Article III federal courts.

This month's edition covers vacancy activity from November 4, 2025, through December 1, 2025, and compares Article III judicial appointments over time by president and by court type through December 1 of their first year in office.

HIGHLIGHTS

Vacancies: There were two new judicial vacancies since the November 1, 2025 report. There are 46 vacancies out of 870 active Article III judicial positions in courts covered in this report. Including the United States Court of Federal Claims and the United States territorial courts, 47 of 890 active federal judicial positions were vacant.

Nominations: There were six new official nominations since the previous report.

Confirmations: There were two confirmations since the previous report.

What's a vacancy?

A vacancy occurs when a judge resigns, retires, takes senior status, or dies. 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. Article III judges are appointed for life terms. Unless a judge is impeached and removed from office—something that has occurred eight times in the history of the federal judiciary—it is the judge's decision 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 Constitution prescribes the process of filling a vacancy. The president nominates a candidate, who then must be confirmed by the United States Senate. There are multiple steps to the process:

• The president nominates an individual for a judicial seat.
• The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing with the nominee.
• After the hearing, the Senate Judiciary Committee votes to approve or return the nominee.
• If approved, the Senate holds a vote on the candidate.

For more information on this process, click here.

Vacancy count for December 1, 2025

The vacancy level was in November 2025. The total vacancy percentage was 5.3 percent, and there were 46 vacancies out of 870 Article III 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.

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

Though the United States territorial courts are named as district courts, they are not Article III courts. They are created in accordance with the power granted under Article IV of the U.S. Constitution. Click here for more information.

New vacancies

Two judges left active status, creating Article III life-term judicial vacancies, since the previous vacancy count. As Article III judicial positions, vacancies must be filled by a nomination from the president. Nominations are subject to confirmation on the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate.

• Judge Sandra Ikuta assumed senior status on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
• Judge Dana Christensen assumed senior status on the United States District Court for the District of Montana.

U.S. Court of Appeals vacancies

Chart

The following chart tracks the number of vacancies on the United States Court of Appeals from the inauguration of President Donald Trump (R) to December 1, 2025.

Maps

The following maps show the number of vacancies on the United States Court of Appeals at the inauguration of President Donald Trump (R) and as of December 1, 2025.

U.S. District Court vacancies

The following map shows the number of vacancies in the United States District Courts as of December 1, 2025.

New nominations

President Donald Trump (R) announced six new nominations since the previous report. Since November 1, 2025, the president announced his intent to nominate the following individuals:

• David Fowlkes, to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.
• Aaron Peterson, to the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska.
• Nicholas Ganjei, to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
• Justin Olson, to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.
• Brian Lea, to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
• Megan Benton, to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

Since taking office for his second term in January 2025, President Donald Trump (R) made 35 Article III judicial nominations.

New confirmations

There have been two new confirmations since the previous report.

• Eric Tung, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
• Joshua Dunlap, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

As of December 1, the Senate has confirmed nineteen of President Trump's judicial nominees—thirteen district court judges, six appeals court judges, no Court of International Trade judges, and no Supreme Court justices—since January 2025. To review a complete list of Trump's confirmed nominees from both presidential terms, click here.

Comparison of Article III judicial appointments over time by president

The chart below details the number of Article III judicial appointments during each president's second term at four specific dates: end of first year in office, end of second year, December 1 of the first year, and Dec. 1 of the fourth year. It includes Presidents Bill Clinton (D) through Donald Trump (R).

• Presidents have made an average of 27 judicial appointments through December 1 of their first year in office. President Barack Obama (D) had the most appointees confirmed with 38, and President George W. Bush (R) had the fewest confirmations with 15.
• President Bill Clinton (D) made the most appointments through four years with 174. President George W. Bush (R) made the fewest through four years with 122.
• President Barack Obama (D) made the most appointments through two years with 134. President George W. Bush (R) made the fewest with 54.
• President Barack Obama (D) made the most appointments through one year in office with 45. President George W. Bush (R) made the fewest with 22.

Comparison of Article III judicial appointments over time by president and court type

See also: Federal judicial appointments by president

The table and chart below show the number of Article III judges confirmed by the U.S. Senate under each president since Bill Clinton as of December 1 of their first year and second term in office. The confirmations are broken up by court type.

• The median number of Supreme Court appointees is one. Only President W. Bush had appointed a SCOTUS justice by this point in his presidency.
• The median number of United States Court of Appeals appointees is seven. President Obama had the most appointees with nine. President Trump appointed the fewest with six.
• The median number of United States District Court appointees is 21. President Clinton had the most appointees with 29. President W. Bush appointed the fewest with seven.

See also

• United States federal courts
• Current federal judicial vacancies
• Judicial vacancies during the Trump administration
• The Trump administration on federal courts