Yesterday, we took a deep dive into the make-up of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to see what the next President may have the opportunity to do (and also what the make-up of the next Senate will be able to affect). Today, we look at the twelve U.S. Courts of Appeals with territorial jurisdiction (1st through 11th and D.C.) to determine how many possible openings exist now and may come open in the next four years. There is no predicting when a judge may die or retire, so we are looking strictly at when the various judges on the Courts will be eligible to take senior status (at least 65 years old, and age plus years of federal judge service equal at least 80); where this will occur any time within the next four years, we will note that as a “potential opening.” While the filling of U.S. Supreme Court vacancies suck up all the attention, it’s these Court of Appeals vacancies that can have a more lasting, day-to-day effect on voters’ lives. At the bottom, we total it all up, and you’ll also find a link for lawyer volunteer election-protection opportunities.
U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals: 6 active judges (2 Obama-appointees, 4 Biden-appointees), plus 5 senior status; 1 potential opening (including 1 for which there is a current nominee, to take the active-status seat currently held by Judge Kayatta, whose senior-status will not take effect until a nominee replacement is confirmed)
U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals: 13 active judges (1 Geo. W. Bush-appointee, 1 Obama-appointee, 5 Trump-appointees, 6 Biden-appointees), plus 14 senior status; 1 potential opening
U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals: 13 active judges (3 Geo. W. Bush-appointees, 3 Obama-appointees, 4 Trump-appointees, 3 Biden-appointees), plus 11 senior status; 4 potential openings (including 1 active judge, Kent Jordan, whose retirement will be effective January 15, 2025) and 1 current vacancy (nominee pending since January 2024)
U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals: 15 active judges (1 Reagan-appointee, 1 Geo. H.W. Bush-appointee, 1 Clinton-appointee, 2 Geo. W. Bush-appointees, 4 Obama-appointees, 3 Trump-appointees, 3 Biden-appointees), plus 3 senior status; 8 potential openings and 1 current vacancy (nominee pending since July 2024)
U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals: 17 active judges (2 Reagan-appointees, 1 Clinton-appointee, 4 Geo. W. Bush-appointees, 2 Obama-appointees, 6 Trump-appointees, 2 Biden-appointees), plus 9 senior status; 9 potential openings
U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals: 16 active judges (2 Clinton-appointees, 3 Geo. W. Bush-appointees, 1 Obama-appointee, 6 Trump-appointees, 4 Biden-appointees), plus 14 senior status; 6 potential openings (including replacement for Judge Branstetter, whose senior-status will take effect upon confirmation of successor, and for whom a nominee has been pending since June 2024)
U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals: 10 active judges (1 Reagan-appointee, 1 Geo. W. Bush-appointee, 4 Trump-appointees, 5 Biden-appointees), plus 4 senior status; 3 potential openings
U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals: 11 active judges (1 Geo. H.W. Bush-appointee, 5 Geo. W. Bush-appointees, 1 Obama-appointee, 4 Trump-appointees), plus 1 senior status; 7 potential openings
U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals: 29 active judges (3 Geo. W. Bush-appointees, 3 Clinton-appointees, 6 Obama-appointees,10 Trump-appointees, 7 Biden-appointees), plus 23 senior status; 9 potential openings
U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals: 12 active judges (3 Geo. W. Bush-appointees, 5 Obama-appointees, 2 Trump-appointees, 2 Biden-appointees), plus 7 senior status; 8 potential openings
U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals: 11 active judges (1 Clinton-appointee, 1 Geo. W. Bush-appointee, 3 Obama-appointees, 6 Trump-appointees, 1 Biden-appointee), plus 9 senior status; 3 potential openings (including Judge Wilson, whose senior status will occur when his replacement is confirmed and for which a nominee has been pending since May 2024)
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals: 11 active judges (1 Geo. H.W. Bush-appointee, 4 Obama-appointees, 3 Trump-appointees, 3 Biden-appointees), plus 4 senior status; 4 potential vacancies
SO: Out of 164 total currently active-status judges on the U.S. Courts of Appeals, 4 are Reagan-appointees, 3 are George H.W. Bush-appointees, 8 are Clinton-appointees, 26 are George W. Bush-appointees, 32 are Obama-appointees, 53 are Trump-appointees, and 40 are Biden-appointees; 6 active-status seats are currently vacant or have a definite vacancy impending, for which there are 4 Biden-nominees currently pending); and 59 of the active-status seats (not including the ones with nominations already pending) are held by judges who are eligible now or will be eligible within the next four years to take senior status or retire at full-vestment, thus opening up the seat. Therefore, this election–both for the President who could appoint and for the Senate who would confirm–has enormous implications for the judiciary.
If you are an attorney and are interested in helping to ensure these elections are protected from suppression activities, you may volunteer for election protection work and other work at We the Action, a clearinghouse for lawyer volunteer opportunities connected with the election.
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