The White House continues to nominate excellent nominees to fill the ever-increasing number judicial vacancies. Yesterday, President Trump announced his intent to nominate an eleventh wave of judicial nominees, which includes Court of Appeals nominees Andrew Oldham (Fifth Circuit), Michael Scudder (Seventh Circuit), Amy St. Eve (Seventh Circuit), and Mark Bennett (Ninth Circuit).
As the Democratic minority continues its unprecedented insistence on time-consuming cloture votes for nominees—including the numerous judicial nominees who have been reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously—the number of judicial nominees awaiting full Senate confirmation votes continues to tick up: presently there are 29 judicial nominees awaiting floor votes. Given that cloture requires 30 hours of debate time for each nominee, the Senate would have to work continuously all day and night for over 36 days straight in order to process all of the pending nominees.
Here is this week’s full update on federal judicial nominations.
Current and known future vacancies: 176
Courts of Appeals: 23
District/Specialty Courts*: 153
Pending nominees for current and known future vacancies: 53
Courts of Appeals: 4
District/Specialty Courts: 49
* Includes the Court of Federal Claims and the International Trade Court
Nominees Awaiting Floor Votes: 29
Courts of Appeals: 3
District/Specialty Courts: 26
Nominees Confirmed by the Senate: 24
Supreme Court: 1
Courts of Appeals: 13
District/Specialty Courts: 10