The Volokh Conspiracy
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Judicial Conference Recommends 71 New Judgeships, Including Two on the Ninth Circuit
The Judicial Conference again asks Congress to create more judicial seats to address judicial backlogs.
The Judicial Conference of the United States has again asked Congress to create additional judgeships to address burgeoning caseloads in many courts. Specifically, the Judicial Conference has recommended the creation of two additional seats on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and 69 additional district court seats.
From the release:
District court filings have grown by 30 percent since 1990, when the last comprehensive judgeship bill was enacted. Since 1991, the overall number of authorized district court judgeships increased by only four percent.
Burgeoning caseloads can lead to significant case delays. Delays result in increased costs for litigants and raise access to justice concerns, especially in civil cases that may take years to get to trial. Over the past 20 years, the number of civil cases pending more than three years rose 346 percent, from 18,280 on March 31, 2004, to 81,617 on March 31, 2024.
In developing judgeship recommendations, the Conference and its Committee on Judicial Resources use a formal survey process to study and evaluate Article III judgeship needs. Before a judgeship recommendation is transmitted to Congress, it undergoes several levels of careful consideration and review. The surveys are conducted every two years and the resulting recommendations are based on established criteria, including current workload factors and empirical standards.
In fiscal year 2024, weighted filings, which account for the different amounts of time district judges require to resolve various types of civil and criminal actions, were above 500 per judgeship in 20 of the 25 district courts where the Conference is recommending additional judgeships.
In 12 of these courts, weighted filings exceeded 600 per judgeship and in five courts filings were greater than 700 per judgeship. The Conference generally requires district courts to have over 430 weighted filings per judgeship to recommend additional judgeships. Weighted filings data for each district court are published in Federal Court Management Statistics.
The specific recommendations are here.
Last year, Congress passed the JUDGES Act with bipartisan support to create additional judgeships recommended by the Judicial Conference. The Federal Judges Association and Federal Bar Association both endorsed the bill, but President Biden vetoed the legislation because it created seats in districts in which Senators had blocked confirmations and would have created too many seats for his successor to fill.
Ideally, Congress would approve this recommendation quickly, with legislation that staggers the creation of the new seats over the next eight years. In this way, Congress could meet the need of the judiciary while minimizing any partisan advantage from the creation of new seats. That is what Congress tried to do last year. We will see if they try again.
