Judicial Conference Asks Congress for New Judgeships
Overburdened Southwest Border Courts Would Benefit
The Judicial Conference has sent a revised request for new judgeships to Congress with recommendations reflecting the impact of a growing caseload throughout the Judiciary, particularly the crisis faced by the southwest border courts, and the failure of a major judgeship bill to pass Congress in nearly a decade. The request fol-lows an expedited consideration of new judgeship requests by the Judicial Conference and its Judicial Resources Committee timed, hopefully, to move a judgeship bill in the remaining weeks of the 106th Congress.
The Conference asks that Congress create 10 additional circuit judgeships, six permanent and four temporary; create 53 additional district judgeships, 30 permanent and 23 temporary; convert seven temporary district judgeships to permanent, and extend one temporary district judgeship for an additional five years. Temporary judgeships are created for a minimum time period, but where the first judicial vacancy occurring after that time period (seven years as requested by the Conference) is not filled.
"The last new judgeships created, nine in all, were contained in the fiscal year 2001 omnibus appropriations bill," said Administrative Office Director Leonidas Ralph Mecham. "Prior to that no new judgeships had been created since 1990, even though the Judiciary has experienced an unprecedented workload increase in that time."
In 1990, when the last judgeship bill, P.L. 101-650, was passed, appeals filed in the federal courts totaled 40,898, civil cases stood at 217,879, and criminal cases totaled 48,904. By 1999, appeals cases filed had increased 34 percent to 54,693; civil cases increased 19 percent to 260,271, and criminal cases had risen 23 percent to 59,923.
But it is in the southwest border courts, where the need for additional judgeships has become most pressing. Five southwest district courts, the District of Arizona, the Southern District of California, the District of New Mexico, and the Districts of Southern and Western Texas, all would receive additional judgeships under the new recommendations. Together they handle 26 percent of all criminal case filings in the United States. The only one of these districts to receive any relief has been the District of Arizona, which received three permanent judgeships in the fiscal year 2001 appropriations bill. None of these new judge positions have been filled. The Southern District of California is so pressed for help, the Conference increased its judgeship recommendation from three permanent and one temporary judgeships to five permanent and three temporary judgeships.
The Conference last evaluated judgeship needs in 1999, based upon the biennial judgeship survey. The Conference considers many factors in making judgeship recommendations, including the court's own request, caseload guidelines that include weighted filings per judgeship for district courts, and a court's efforts and strategies to handle their judicial workload.
Judgeship Recommendations | ||
| Court | Currently Authorized | Judicial Conference Recommendation |
| COURT IF APPEALS | ||
| First | 6 | 1T |
| Second | 13 | 2P |
| Sixth | 16 | 2P |
| Ninth | 28 | 2P,3T |
| DISTRICT COURTS | ||
| AL-N | 7 | 1P,1T |
| AL-M | 3 | 1P |
| AL-S | 3 | 1T |
| AZ | 11 | 1P/4T |
| CA-N | 14 | 1P |
| CA-E | 6 | 2P,T/P |
| CA-C | 27 | 2T |
| CA-S | 8 | 5P,3T |
| CO | 7 | 1P,1T |
| FL-M | 15 | 1P,1T |
| FL-S | 16 | 2P |
| HI | 3 | T/P |
| IL-C | 3 | T/P |
| IL-S | 3 | T/P |
| IN-S | 5 | 1T |
| KY-E | 4 | 1T |
| NE | 3 | T/P |
| NV | 6 | 1T |
| NM | 5 | 2P,1T |
| NY-N | 4 | 1T,T/P |
| NY-E | 15 | 3P |
| NY-W | 4 | 1T |
| NC-W | 3 | 2P |
| OH-N | 11 | Extend T* |
| OR | 6 | 1T |
| SC | 9 | 1P |
| TX-E | 7 | 1T |
| TX-S | 18 | 2P |
| TX-W | 10 | 3P,1T |
| VA-E | 9 | 2P,T/P |
| WA-W | 7 | 1T |
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