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Ballotpedia
Ballotpedia
National
Ellie Mikus

Ballotpedia releases federal judicial vacancy count for April 2024

In this month’s federal judicial vacancy count, Ballotpedia tracked nominations, confirmations, and vacancies from March 2, 2024, through April 1, 2024. Ballotpedia publishes the federal judicial vacancy count at the start of each month.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Vacancies: There have been no new federal judicial vacancies since the March 2024 report. There are 44 vacancies out of 870 active Article III judicial positions on courts covered in this report. Including the United States Court of Federal Claims and the United States territorial courts, 45 of 890 active federal judicial positions are vacant.
  • Nominations: There have been five new nominations since the previous report.
  • Confirmations: There have been nine new confirmations since the previous report.

New vacancies

There were 44 vacancies out of 870 active Article III judicial positions, a total vacancy percentage of 5.1, which is 0.8 percentage points lower than the vacancy percentage in March 2024.

  • The nine-member U.S. Supreme Court does not have any vacancies.
  • Two (1.1%) of the 179 U.S. Appeals Court positions are vacant.
  • 42 (6.2%) of the 677 U.S. District Court positions are vacant.
  • None of the nine U.S. Court of International Trade positions are vacant.

A vacancy occurs when a judge resigns, retires, takes senior status, or passes away. Article III judges, who serve on courts authorized by Article III of the Constitution, are appointed for life terms.

No judges left active status, which would have created 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.

U.S. Court of Appeals vacancies

The following map shows the number of vacancies on the United States Court of Appeals as of April 1, 2024.

The following map shows the number of vacancies in the United States District Courts as of April 1, 2024.

The following chart shows the number of federal judicial vacancies each month during President Joe Biden’s (D) administration from January 2021 to April 2024.

New nominations

Biden has announced five new nominations since the previous report.

Since taking office in January 2021, Biden has nominated 223 individuals to Article III positions.

New confirmations

Since the previous report, the U.S. Senate has confirmed nine of Biden’s nominees to Article III seats:

As of April 1, 2024, the Senate has confirmed 190 of Biden’s judicial nominees—146 district court judges, 41 appeals court judges, two international trade judges, and one Supreme Court justice.

Additional reading:

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