Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 4/11/2012

April 11, 2012

By Joshua Meyer-Gutbrod

For a District by District break down, see: Federal Court Vacancy Warning System

The current vacancy warning level for the U.S. District courts is set at Blue. There were no changes this past week, leaving the final tally at 79 vacancies or approximately 9.1% of the total Article III posts currently unfilled. The vacancy information for the various court levels is as follows:

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

Supreme Court	0% or no vacancies
Appeals Courts	9% or 16 vacancies
District Courts	9.3% or 63 vacancies

There are currently 9 Supreme Court posts, 179 appellate court posts and 680 district court posts for a total of 868 Article III judges. This count includes four temporary posts, one each in the Northern District of Alabama, District of Arizona, Southern District of Florida and the Central District of California. This also includes a shared post between the two Missouri districts and counts it as two posts with separate vacancies.

Weekly graphics

Monthly map

The new weekly map feature will be updated every week and posted here and on the vacancy warning level analysis page.

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New confirmations

There were no new confirmations this past week.

New vacancies

There were no new vacancies this past week.

New nominations

There were no new nominations this past week.

Update on hearings

During the past few weeks, the senate has held a number of hearings and passed a number of candidates on to the full Senate. Here is a review of the action:

Judge	ABA rating		Hearing	Questionnaire	Record	Reported by committee
William Kayatta	Unanimously Well Qualified	March 14, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here
Richard Gary Taranto	Unanimously Well Qualified	February 29, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	March 29, 2012
Andrew Hurwitz	Unanimously Well Qualified	January 26, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	March 1, 2012
Paul Watford	Unanimously Well Qualified	December 13, 2011	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	February 2, 2012
Patty Shwartz	Unanimously Well Qualified	February 15, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	March 8, 2012
Jacqueline Nguyen	Unanimously Qualified	November 2, 2011	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	December 1, 2011
Stephanie Rose	Unanimously Well Qualified	March 14, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here
Michael Shea	Unanimously Qualified	March 28, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here
Michael Shipp	Substantial Majority Qualified, Minority Not Qualified	March 14, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here
Kevin McNulty	Unanimously Well Qualified	March 14, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here
John T. Fowlkes	Unanimously Well Qualified	March 14, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here
Robert Shelby	Unanimously Qualified	March 28, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here
Robin Rosenbaum	Unanimously Well Qualified	February 29, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	March 29, 2012
Timothy Hillman	Unanimously Well Qualified	February 15, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	March 8, 2012
Gershwin Drain	Unanimously Qualified	February 29, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	March 29, 2012
John Tharp, Jr.	Unanimously Well Qualified	January 26, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	February 16, 2012
George L. Russell III	Substantial Majority Qualified, Minority Not Qualified	January 26, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	February 16, 2012
John Z. Lee	Substantial Majority Qualified, Minority Not Qualified	January 26, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	February 16, 2012
Gonzalo P. Curiel	Substantial Majority Well Qualified, Minority Qualified	March 28, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here
Kristine Gerhard Baker	Substantial Majority Well Qualified, Minority Qualified	January 26, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	February 16, 2012
Brian C. Wimes	Unanimously Qualified	November 14, 2011	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	December 15, 2011
David Guaderrama	Substantial Majority Well Qualified, Minority Qualified	November 2, 2011	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	December 1, 2011
Gregg Costa	Unanimously Well Qualified	November 2, 2011	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	December 1, 2011
Jeffrey J. Helmick	Substantial Majority Well Qualified, Minority Qualified	February 15, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	March 8, 2012
Mary Geiger Lewis	Unanimously Qualified	February 15, 2012	Committee Questionnaire available here	Questions for the Record available here	March 8, 2012

See also

• United States federal courts