Trump-47 Judicial Vacancies and Trump-47 Judicial Nominations (UPDATED)

By December 15, 2021, BIDEN had 31 nominees to Article III judicial posts confirmed by the U.S. Senate. 

By December 15, 2017, TRUMP-45 had 19 nominees to Article III judicial posts confirmed by the U.S. Senate. This included one U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

As of December 15, 2025, Trump-47 has had 26 nominees to Article III judicial posts confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Apparently, no nominees have been selected for the Court of International Trade, or for any of the territorial district courts (US Virgin Islands vacancy), or for any of the major Article I judicial posts.

At the start of Trump-47, on January 20, 2025, there were 45 federal judicial vacancies—all were Article III vacancies.

There are now 49 federal judicial vacancies, including: 48 Article III positions, and one Article I position (United States District Court for the District of the Virgin Islands).

There are 874 authorized Article III federal judicial positions (including the Court of International Trade, including Article I district courts in the territories), with 49 vacancies, amounting to a circa 6% vacancy rate. 

There is currently ONE vacancy across all federal appellate courts: an EIGHTH Circuit post. As of today, Dec. 15, 2025, there is no nominee.

The State with the greatest number of federal judicial vacancies is Texas: TEN vacancies. One nominee has been put forward for these TEN vacant posts.

 

     December 15, 2025: Vacancies             Trump-47 Nominations*      Senate Confirmed

US Supreme Court --                    0                                     0                                         0

US Federal Circuit Courts --        1                                      0                                        6

US Federal District Courts --     46                                      8                                       20

US Court of Int’l Trade (Art III)  1                                      0                                         0

Article I Courts --                         1                                      0                                         0

Total --                                        49                                      8                                       26 

Vacancies include current and future vacancies as reported: current, <https://www.uscourts.gov/data-news/judicial-vacancies/current-judicial-vacancies>, and future <https://www.uscourts.gov/data-news/judicial-vacancies/future-judicial-vacancies>. 

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Trump-47 Judicial Vacancies and Trump-47 Judicial Nominations,’ New Reform Club (UPDATED: Dec. 15, 2025) (Jan. 29, 2025, 3:14 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2025/01/trump-47-judicial-vacancies-and.html>; 

*“Nominations” refers to nominations awaiting Senate committee action or action before the full Senate. Posts listed in the “Senate Confirmed” column are not included among “Vacancies” or “Trump-47 Nominations”. Nominations which are announced to the public, but not yet submitted to the Senate are not included in the chart above.