WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal judges in New Jersey have struggled with a workload approaching 700 cases each, nearly double what’s manageable, because of judicial vacancies. In Texas, close to a dozen district judgeships remain open, more than any other state.
Senate confirmation of President Barack Obama’s nominees slowed to a halt this election year, a common political occurrence for the final months of divided government with a Democratic president and a Republican-controlled Senate. The vacancy on the Supreme Court attracted the most attention as Republicans refused to even hold confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, insisting that the choice to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February rests with the next president.
But more than 90 vacancies in the federal judiciary are taking a toll on judges, the courts and Americans seeking recourse. Obama has nominated replacements for more than half of those spots, including 44 nominees for the district court and seven for the appeals court. Yet the Senate has confirmed only nine district and appeals court judges this year – and only four since Scalia died.
The U.S. court system has declared 35 of the vacancies “judicial emergencies,” a designation based on how many filings are in the district and how long the seat has been open.
Senate Democrats, along with some Republicans who want to fill vacancies in their home states, are pushing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to hold confirmation votes in the lame-duck session between the election and the end of the year. But McConnell has said repeatedly that Obama has already gotten more judges confirmed over his eight years in office than President George W. Bush did.