The Federal Judicial Vacancy Count 6/1/2024
June 1, 2024
Welcome to the Federal Vacancy Count for June 1, 2024! The Federal Vacancy Count tracks vacancies, nominations, and confirmations to all United States Article III federal courts.
This month's edition covers activity from May 2, 2024, through June 1, 2024, and compares Article III judicial appointments over time by president and by court type.[1]
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 June 1, 2024
The vacancy level was in May 2024. The total vacancy percentage was 5.1 percent, and there were 44 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
Three judges left active status, 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 subject to confirmation on the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate.
- Judge Jon Levy assumed senior status on the United States District Court for the District of Maine.
- Judge Gene Pratter left the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania upon her death.
- Judge Cormac Carney retired from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
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 June 1, 2024.
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 June 1, 2024.
U.S. District Court vacancies
The following map shows the number of vacancies in the United States District Courts as of June 1, 2024.
New nominations
President Joe Biden (D) announced eight new nominations since the previous report.
- Embry Kidd, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- Adam Abelson, to the United States District Court for the District of Maryland
- Joseph Saporito, to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
- Meredith Vacca, to the United States District Court for the Western District of New York
- Karla Campbell, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- Julia Lipez, to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
- Catherine Henry, to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- Mary Kay Lanthier, to the United States District Court for the District of Vermont
Since taking office in January 2021, Biden has nominated 238 individuals to Article III positions.
New confirmations
There have been seven new confirmations since the previous report:
- Angela Martinez, to the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona
- Dena Coggins, to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
- Seth Aframe,to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
- Krissa Lanham, to the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona
- Camela Theeler, to the U.S. District Court for the District of South
- Sanket Bulsara, to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- Eric Schulte, to the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota
As of June 1, 2024, the Senate has confirmed 201 of President Biden's Article III judicial nominee s—156 district court judges, 42 appeals court judges, two international trade 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
- Presidents have made an average of 172.6 judicial appointments through June 1 of their fourth year in office.
- President Joe Biden (D) made the most appointments through June 1 of his fourth year with 201. President Ronald Reagan (R) made the fewest with 137.
- 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.
- President Ronald Reagan (R) made the most appointments through one year in office with 41. President Barack Obama (D) made the fewest with 13.
- President Bill Clinton (D) made the most appointments through two years with 128. President Barack Obama (D) made the fewest with 62.
Comparison of Article III judicial appointments over time by president and court type
The table and chart below show the number of Article III judges confirmed by the U.S. Senate under each of the last seven presidents as of June 1 of their fourth year in office. The confirmations are broken up by court type.
- The median number of Supreme Court appointees is two. Two presidents (Reagan, and Biden) made one appointment. Four presidents (H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump) made two. President 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 32. President Trump had the most appointees with 51. President Reagan appointed the fewest with 25.
- The median number of United States District Court appointees is 142. President Biden had the most appointees with 156. President Reagan appointed the fewest with 109.
See also
- United States federal courts
- Current federal judicial vacancies
- Judicial vacancies during the Biden administration
- The Biden administration on federal courts
Footnotes
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