Federal Courts, Empty Benches: The Wednesday Vacancy Count 8/22/2012
August 22, 2012
- 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 during the past week. That leaves the final tally at 75 vacancies or approximately 8.6% of the total Article III posts currently unfilled. The vacancy information for the various court levels is as follows:
| Key: | |
| (Numbers indicate % of seats vacant.) | |
| 0% | 0%-10% |
| 10%-25% | 25%-40% |
| More than 40% | |
| Supreme Court | 0% or no vacancies |
| Appeals Courts | 7.8% or 14 vacancies |
| District Courts | 9% or 61 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 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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News
Yet again, with elections in full swing, the American public finds itself entering another lame duck session of government. There was no action on any of the existing vacancies at the federal level. In addition, there were no new vacancies created this week. However, there are 10 scheduled vacancies between now and the end of the year, including 1 appellate vacancy. If unchecked, these vacancies will raise the vacancy warning level for the district courts from Blue to Yellow with 10.3% of the posts being vacant. The overall vacancy warning level and the appellate warning level will remain unchanged.
More data
With the lack of activity we have decided to add 6 more months of data under the Obama administration. More to come and refreshed graphs once the 111th congress is calculated fully.
| Date | Change from last week | Appellate and Supreme Court Vacancies (% of Posts) | District Court Vacancies (% of Posts) | Total Vacancies (% of Posts) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/2/2010 | 1 appellate vacancy and 2 district vacancies | 18 (10.1%) | 81 (11.9%) | 99 (11.4% ) |
| 6/9/2010 | 3 district confirmations and 1 district vacancy | 18 (10.1%) | 79 (11.6%) | 97 (11.2% ) |
| 6/16/2010 | 3 District confirmations, 1 appellate vacancy and 1 district vacancy | 19 (10.6%) | 77 (11.3%) | 96 (11.1% ) |
| 6/23/2010 | 3 district confirmations | 19 (10.6%) | 74 (10.9%) | 93 (10.7% ) |
| 6/30/2010 | 1 District confirmation and 1 SCOTUS vacancy | 19 (10.6%) | 73 (10.9%) | 93 (10.7% ) (1 SCOTUS) |
| 7/7/2010 | 2 Circuit vacancies and 1 district vacancy | 21 (11.7%) | 74 (10.9%) | 96 (11.1% ) (1 SCOTUS) |
| 7/14/2010 | 1 District confirmation | 21 (11.7%) | 73 (10.7%) | 95 (10.9% ) (1 SCOTUS) |
| 7/21/2010 | No Change | 21 (11.7%) | 73 (10.7%) | 95 (10.9% ) (1 SCOTUS) |
| 7/28/2010 | No Change | 21 (11.7%) | 73 (11.5%) | 95 (11.5% ) (1 SCOTUS) |
| 8/4/2010 | 5 district vacancies | 21 (11.7%) | 78 (11.5%) | 100 (11.5% ) (1 SCOTUS) |
| 8/11/2010 | 1 Supreme Court confirmation, 1 appellate confirmation ,3 district confirmations | 20 (11.2%) | 75 (11%) | 95 (10.9% ) |
| 8/18/2010 | 2 district vacancies | 20 (11.2%) | 77 (11.3%) | 97 (11.2% ) |
| 8/25/2010 | No Change | 20 (11.2%) | 77 (11.3%) | 97 (11.2% ) |
| 9/1/2010 | 1 Circuit vacancy and 1 district vacancy | 21 (11.7%) | 78 (11.5%) | 99 (11.4% ) |
| 9/8/2010 | 1 District vacancy | 21 (11.7%) | 79 (11.6%) | 100 (11.5% ) |
| 9/15/2010 | 1 appellate confirmation | 20 (11.2%) | 79 (11.6%) | 99 (11.4% ) |
| 9/22/2010 | No Change | 20 (11.2%) | 79 (11.6%) | 99 (11.4% ) |
| 9/29/2010 | No Change | 20 (11.2%) | 79 (11.6%) | 99 (11.4% ) |
| 10/6/2010 | 1 Circuit vacancy | 21 (11.7%) | 79 (11.6%) | 100 (11.5% ) |
| 10/13/2010 | No Activity | 21 (11.7%) | 79 (11.6%) | 100 (11.5% ) |
| 10/20/2010 | No Activity | 21 (11.7%) | 79 (11.6%) | 100 (11.5% ) |
| 10/27/2010 | No Activity | 21 (11.7%) | 79 (11.6%) | 100 (11.5% ) |
| 11/3/2010 | 1 District vacancy | 21 (11.7%) | 80 (11.8%) | 101 (11.6% ) |
| 11/10/2010 | 1 District vacancy | 21 (11.7%) | 81 (11.9%) | 102 (11.8% ) |
| 11/17/2010 | No Change | 21 (11.7%) | 81 (11.9%) | 102 (11.8% ) |
| 11/24/2010 | 1 Circuit vacancy | 22 (12.3%) | 81 (11.9%) | 103 (11.9% ) |
| 12/1/2010 | 1 District vacancy | 22 (12.3%) | 82 (12.1%) | 104 (12% ) |
| 12/8/2010 | No Change | 22 (12.3%) | 82 (12.1%) | 104 (12% ) |
| 12/15/2010 | 1 district vacancy | 22 (12.3%) | 83 (12.2%) | 105 (12.1% ) |
| 12/22/2010 | 2 Circuit confirmations, 12 District confirmations, | 20 (11.2%) | 71 (10.4%) | 91 (10.5% ) |
| 12/29/2010 | 3 Circuit confirmations, 2 district confirmations, 1 district vacancy | 17 (9.5%) | 70 (10.3%) | 87 (10% ) |
| 12/31/2010 | 3 District vacancies | 17 (9.5%) | 73 (10.7%) | 90 (10.4% ) |
See also
References
| This article was written by Joshua Meyer-Gutbrod, an Assistant Staff Writer for the Federal Courts Project on Judgepedia. He can be reached at joshua.meyer-gutbrod. |
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