Federal Judicial Vacancy by State in US 2026 | Vacancies, District Courts, Pending Nominees & Key Facts

Federal judicial vacancy for 2026 show 28 vacancies across the federal courts as of November 11, 2026, all on district courts, with none on the 179-judgeship courts of appeals. Texas has the most vacancies with 4, 11 nominees are pending for the 28 vacancies, and the oldest vacancy, in the Southern District of California, has stood open since August 1, 2021.

Federal Judicial Vacancy by State in US 2026 – Introduction

Federal judicial vacancies open when a judge takes senior status, retires, resigns, is elevated or dies. Presidents nominate replacements, and the Senate confirms them. The 28 open seats on federal district courts make up 4.2% of the 673 district judgeships, a low share compared with recent years.

2026 is the first full year of the second Trump administration, and the pipeline of nominees is moving ahead of a change in Senate control in January 2027. This report covers federal judicial vacancies by state and circuit, district and appeals courts, pending nominees, vacancies with no nominee, reasons judges leave, the longest-running vacancies and confirmation totals. Figures run through November 11, 2026, and they change as the Senate confirms nominees and judges announce new departures.

Interesting Facts about Federal Judicial Vacancy 2026

FEDERAL JUDICIAL VACANCIES BY STATE, TOP STATES (November 11, 2026)
Texas                 | ████████████████████ 4
New York              | ███████████████ 3
Massachusetts         | ██████████ 2
California            | ██████████ 2
Oklahoma              | ██████████ 2
All other 15 states   | █████ 1 each

Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Current Judicial Vacancies (update as of November 11, 2026); Ballotpedia, November 2026; our calculations from vacancy dates.

The U.S. Courts list 28 vacancies and 11 pending nominees as of November 11, 2026. 17 vacancies have no nominee. Ballotpedia counts 28 of 673 district court positions as vacant, or 4.2%, and none of the 179 appeals court seats. The vacancies sit in 20 states, with Texas leading at 4 and New York next at 3.

Duration shows how long the pipeline can take. The average vacancy has been open 443 days, with a median of 401, by our calculation from the vacancy dates. The oldest, in the Southern District of California, opened on August 1, 2021. Since January 2025, the Senate has confirmed 56 of Trump’s lifetime-tenure judicial nominees, including 45 district judges and 10 appeals judges, and no Supreme Court justices. Trackers differ slightly on counts of future vacancies and of pending nominees overall.

Federal Judicial Vacancies by State 2026: Where the 28 Vacancies Are

VACANCIES AND PENDING NOMINEES BY STATE
Texas           | ████████ 4 vacancies | ██ 2 nominees
New York        | ██████ 3 | 0
Massachusetts   | ████ 2 | 0
California      | ████ 2 | 0
Oklahoma        | ████ 2 | ████ 2 nominees
Other 15 states | ██ 1 each | 7 nominees across 7 states

Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Current Judicial Vacancies, update as of November 11, 2026.

Texas has 4 of the 28 vacancies, or 14%, and 2 of its seats have nominees. New York has 3, all in the Southern District of New York, and none has a nominee. Massachusetts, California and Oklahoma each have 2. The other 15 states have 1 each. Nominees are pending in 9 states: Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

Eleven states have vacancies but no nominee for any seat: New York, Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, South Carolina and Virginia. They cover 15 vacancies, and Texas has 2 more without nominees. The list changes as nominations arrive. Because vacancies cluster in a few states, the Senate’s home-state confirmation practices and the preferences of senators from those states shape how fast they fill.

Federal Judicial Vacancies by Circuit 2026: Fifth and Second Circuits Lead

VACANCIES BY CIRCUIT, NOVEMBER 2026
Fifth Circuit    | █████ 5
Second Circuit   | ████ 4
First Circuit    | ███ 3
Ninth Circuit    | ███ 3
Tenth Circuit    | ███ 3
Eleventh Circuit | ███ 3
Fourth Circuit   | ██ 2
Sixth Circuit    | ██ 2
Eighth Circuit   | ██ 2
Seventh Circuit  | █ 1

Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Current Judicial Vacancies, November 11, 2026; our grouping by circuit.

The Fifth Circuit has the most district court vacancies, 5, from Louisiana and Texas. The Second Circuit has 4, three from the Southern District of New York and one from Connecticut. The First, Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Circuits each have 3. The Fourth, Sixth and Eighth have 2 each, and the Seventh has 1. Our circuit totals add up to all 28.

The Third Circuit and the D.C. Circuit have no open district seats. The Southern District of New York has 3 open seats on its own. Vacancy counts alone do not measure caseload, so the table shows where seats are open, not where courts are busiest.

District Court vs Appeals Court Vacancies 2026: Where the Seats Are Open

SHARE OF JUDGESHIPS VACANT, NOVEMBER 2026 (percent)
U.S. district courts   | ████ 4.2
U.S. courts of appeals | 0.0

Source: Ballotpedia, federal judicial vacancy count for November 2026; Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, vacancy summary for November 2024.

All 28 vacancies are on district courts, which hold 673 judgeships. That is 4.2%, down from 38 district vacancies and 40 total vacancies in November 2024, when the courts listed 890 authorized judgeships. The appeals courts have 0 current vacancies out of 179, and the Supreme Court has 0 of 9.

The appeals courts are full because few judges left. Pew, citing Brookings data, found only 3 appeals judges left or announced departures between the 2024 election and the end of Trump’s first year back, against 30 over the same stretch for Biden. Trump has had 10 appeals judges confirmed in this term.

Pending Federal Judicial Nominees 2026: 11 Nominees for 28 Vacancies

NOMINATIONS BY DATE (nominees pending)
July 14, 2026        | █ 1
September 14, 2026   | ██████████ 10

Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Current Judicial Vacancies, November 11, 2026.

11 nominees are pending for the 28 current vacancies. 10 of them were nominated on September 14, 2026, a single batch, and one, Gregory Carl Cook for the Northern District of Alabama, was nominated on July 14, 2026. They cover 9 states and 11 vacancies. Two Texas seats and two Oklahoma seats have nominees.

Another tracker counted 16 nominees pending in the Senate, which includes nominees for announced future vacancies. The U.S. Courts count of 11 covers only current vacancies. Nominees need a Judiciary Committee hearing and a floor vote. The status of hearings and votes changes frequently, so the list shows who is pending, not who will be confirmed.

Federal Judicial Vacancies Without Nominees 2026: 17 Open Seats

VACANCIES WITH AND WITHOUT A NOMINEE
No nominee       | █████████████████ 17
Nominee pending  | ███████████ 11

Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Current Judicial Vacancies; days open are our calculations as of November 11, 2026.

17 of the 28 vacancies have no nominee. Their average age is 439 days, close to the 450 days for seats with nominees. The two Texas seats without nominees, in the Northern and Western Districts, are among them, as are three in the Southern District of New York. Ten of the seventeen have been open for more than a year.

By our count, 13 of the 17 are in states with two Democratic senators: New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Mexico, Illinois, California, Virginia and Georgia. Judicial nominations traditionally involve home-state senators, and the White House has not named nominees for these seats. The data do not say why. The count is a snapshot and may change as the White House announces nominees.

Federal Judicial Vacancy Reasons 2026: Senior Status, Retirement and Elevation

REASON FOR VACANCY, 28 CURRENT VACANCIES
Senior status | ██████████████████████ 22
Resigned      | ██ 2
Retired       | ██ 2
Deceased      | █ 1
Elevated      | █ 1

Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Current Judicial Vacancies; shares are our calculations.

Senior status accounts for 22 of the 28 vacancies, or 78.6%. A judge who takes senior status keeps the title and may keep hearing cases, which opens a full-time seat. Two judges resigned, in the District of Alaska and the Western District of Texas, and two retired, in the Eastern District of Kentucky and Northern District of Georgia. One judge died, in Connecticut. One district judge, in North Dakota, was elevated to the Eighth Circuit.

The data do not show who appointed each departing judge, so this report does not state the party of the original appointment. In this list, senior status is by far the most common reason, and the data cannot show each judge’s motives.

Federal Judicial Vacancies by Age 2026: How Long Seats Have Been Open

VACANCIES BY TIME OPEN, NOVEMBER 11, 2026
Under 90 days    | █████ 5
90 to 365 days   | ███████ 7
1 to 2 years     | ████████████ 12
Over 2 years     | ████ 4

Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Current Judicial Vacancies; our calculations as of November 11, 2026.

16 of the 28 vacancies, or 57.1%, have been open more than a year. 12 have been open between 1 and 2 years, and 4 have passed 2 years. Only 5 opened in the last 90 days. The newest, in the Eastern District of Tennessee, opened on October 5, 2026, 37 days ago, and it already has a nominee.

Seats with nominees are not much newer than seats without them. The 11 with nominees average 450 days open, and the 17 without average 439. That is because the September batch of nominations included several seats that had been open for years, such as Alaska, Louisiana and Florida. The age of a vacancy can reflect nomination timing as well as the pace of the Senate.

Longest-Running Federal Judicial Vacancies 2026: Seats Open Over Two Years

LONGEST VACANCIES, DAYS OPEN (November 11, 2026)
S.D. California | ██████████████████████████████████████████████████ 1,928
D. Alaska       | ███████████████████████████ 856
E.D. Louisiana  | ███████████████████████ 771
M.D. Florida    | ██████████████████████ 739
S.D. New York   | ████████████████████ 680
S.D. Texas      | ███████████████████ 678

Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Current Judicial Vacancies; days open are our calculations as of November 11, 2026.

4 seats have been open for more than 730 days. The Southern District of California seat, vacated by Judge William Hayes on August 1, 2021, has been open 1,928 days, more than 5 years. The Alaska seat, vacated in July 2024, has been open 856 days, and the Eastern District of Louisiana and Middle District of Florida seats have been open 771 and 739 days.

Long vacancies often reflect nominations that stalled, or a judge who stayed on while a successor was sought. Several of the oldest seats, in Alaska, Louisiana and Florida, now have nominees from the September 14 batch. Long vacancies can add to caseloads on the remaining judges, though the data here do not measure caseload. The U.S. Courts also designate some vacancies as judicial emergencies based on caseload criteria.

Trump Judicial Confirmations 2026: 56 Judges Confirmed Since January 2025

SENATE CONFIRMATIONS OF TRUMP NOMINEES, SECOND TERM (as of November 1, 2026)
District court judges          | ████████████████████████ 45
Appeals court judges           | ███████████ 10
Court of International Trade   | █ 1
Supreme Court                  | 0

Source: Ballotpedia, November 2026; Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts; Trump Insight, November 2026.

As of November 1, 2026, the Senate had confirmed 56 of Trump’s lifetime-tenure judicial nominees since January 2025: 45 district judges, 10 appeals judges and 1 Court of International Trade judge. None was a Supreme Court justice. Ten appeals confirmations is a modest number because few appeals seats opened.

The vacancy pipeline has other stages. 28 district seats are open, 11 have nominees, and one tracker reported 15 announced future vacancies, seats where a judge has said they will leave. Those future seats do not count in the 28. Trackers differ on counts, such as the 16 nominees in one list, depending on whether they include nominees for future vacancies.

Judicial Nominations and the 2027 Senate 2026: What Happens to Pending Nominees

SENATE SEATS, 120th CONGRESS (expected)
Democratic caucus | ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████ 54
Republicans       | ████████████████████████████████████████████ 44 (2 uncalled)

Source: Associated Press; NBC News; U.S. Senate rules; Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, November 2026.

Republicans control the Senate until January 3, 2027, and Democrats will hold 54 seats in the 120th Congress, with 2 races uncalled. Judges are confirmed by a simple majority. Nominations pending at the end of a Congress are generally returned to the president, so nominees not confirmed in the lame-duck session would need to be renominated in the new Congress.

That leaves about 7 weeks in the lame-duck session. Republican leaders can try to confirm the 11 pending nominees and any others, and the number they confirm will determine how many seats remain open when Democrats take over. The White House could renominate in 2027, and a Democratic majority controls the Judiciary Committee’s calendar. Outcomes depend on floor time that also competes with other business.

Federal Judicial Vacancy 2026 FAQ

How many federal judicial vacancies are there in 2026?

28 as of November 11, 2026, per the U.S. Courts.

How many vacancies are on the appeals courts?

0 of 179. All 28 vacancies are on district courts.

How many nominees are pending?

11 for current vacancies, per the U.S. Courts. Another tracker counted 16 including future vacancies.

Which state has the most federal judicial vacancies?

Texas, with 4, followed by New York with 3.

How many states have vacancies?

20 states have at least one vacancy.

What is the longest federal judicial vacancy?

The Southern District of California seat, open since August 1, 2021, about 1,928 days.

What share of district judgeships are vacant?

4.2%, or 28 of 673 judgeships.

How many judges has Trump appointed in his second term?

56 confirmed since January 2025: 45 district, 10 appeals and 1 trade court.

Why do federal judicial vacancies open?

22 of the 28 are senior status. Others are resignations, retirements, an elevation and one death.

Which vacancies have no nominee?

17, including 3 in the Southern District of New York and 2 in Massachusetts.

When were most pending nominees nominated?

10 of the 11 were nominated on September 14, 2026.

What happens to pending nominees when the Senate changes in 2027?

Nominations pending at the end of a Congress are generally returned to the president.

Who controls the Senate from January 2027?

Democrats will hold 54 seats and Republicans 44, with 2 races uncalled.

What is a senior status judge?

A judge who steps back from full duties but keeps the title and may keep hearing cases, which opens a full-time seat.

How many federal judicial vacancies have been open more than a year?

16 of the 28, or 57.1%, by our calculation from vacancy dates.

How many federal judgeships are vacant in Texas?

4: two in the Northern District, and one each in the Southern and Western Districts.

Which district has the most vacancies?

The Southern District of New York, with 3, followed by two each in Massachusetts and California.

Which circuits have the most federal judicial vacancies?

The Fifth Circuit has 5, followed by the Second Circuit with 4.

Which states have nominees pending?

Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

How many vacancies were caused by judges taking senior status?

22 of the 28, or 78.6%.

Is there a vacancy on the Supreme Court?

No. All 9 seats are filled.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.