The Federal Judicial Vacancy Count 12/1/2022

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U.S. Federal Courts
Vacancies and Nominations
Judicial vacancies in federal courts • Judicial vacancies during the Biden administration • Federal judges nominated by Joe Biden • Federal judicial appointments by president • Supreme Court vacancy, 2022
ABA ratings of presidential federal judicial nominees • ABA ratings during the Biden administration • ABA ratings during the Trump administration


December 1, 2022

Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for December 1, 2022! The Federal Vacancy Count tracks vacancies, nominations, and confirmations to all United States Article III federal courts.

This month's edition covers activity from November 2, 2022, through December 1, 2022, and compares Article III judicial appointments over time by president and by court type.[1]

HIGHLIGHTS
  • Vacancies: There was one new judicial vacancy since the November 1, 2022 report. There are 87 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, 89 of 890 active federal judicial positions were vacant.
  • Nominations: There were no new nominations since the previous report.[2]
  • Confirmations: There were three new 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, 2022

    The vacancy level was yellow in November 2022. The total vacancy percentage was 10 percent, and there were 87 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

    One judge left active status, creating an Article III life-term judicial vacancy, 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.


    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 Joe Biden (D) to December 1, 2022.

    Maps

    The following maps show the number of vacancies on the United States Court of Appeals at the inauguration of President Joe Biden (D) and as of December 1, 2022.


    U.S. District Court vacancies

    The following map shows the number of vacancies in the United States District Courts as of December 1, 2022.

    New nominations

    President Joe Biden (D) announced no new nominations since the previous report. Since taking office in January 2021, Biden has nominated 142 individuals to Article III positions.


    New confirmations

    There have been three new confirmations since the previous report:

    As of December 1, 2022, the Senate had confirmed 87 of President Biden's Article III judicial nominees—61 district court judges, 25 appeals court judges, and one Supreme Court justice—since his inauguration on January 20, 2021. To review a complete list of Biden's confirmed nominees, click here.


    Comparison of Article III judicial appointments over time by president

    See also: Federal judicial appointments by president


    The chart below details the number of Article III judicial appointments during each president's first term at four specific dates: on January 1 of the second year, December 1 of the second year, December 31 of the second year, and December 31 of the fourth year. It includes Presidents Ronald Reagan (R) through Joe Biden (D).

    • The average number of judicial appointees per president through December 1 of the second year is 85.
    • President Bill Clinton (D) made the most appointments through December 1 of his second year with 128. President Barack Obama (D) made the fewest with 43.
    • President Donald Trump (R) made the most appointments through four years with 234. President Ronald Reagan (R) made the fewest through four years with 166.

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

    See also: Federal judicial appointments by president

    The chart below shows the number of Article III judges confirmed by the U.S. Senate under each of the last seven presidents as of December 1 of their second year in office. The confirmations are broken up by court type.

    • The median number of Supreme Court appointees is one. Three presidents (Reagan, H.W. Bush, and Biden) made one appointment. Three presidents, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, made two. George W. Bush did not appoint any SCOTUS justices by this point in his presidency.
    • The median number of United States Court of Appeals appointees is 19. President Trump had the most appointees with 29. President Obama appointed the fewest with 11.
    • The median number of United States District Court appointees is 61. President Clinton had the most appointees with 107. President Obama appointed the fewest with 30.




    See also

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ The U.S. Courts website publishes data for the previous month on the first of the following month.
    2. ↑ For the purposes of this data, Ballotpedia considers the announcement of the intent to nominate an individual as a nomination.
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