On The Bench: Week of September 28, 2023

With the government shutdown looming, the Senate made minimal progress on judicial nominations this week. As of this writing, there have been no Article III confirmations this week. After Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, there are now 26 Article III nominees pending on the Senate floor. It remains to be seen if the Senate will work on judicial confirmations if the government shutdown goes into effect.

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held an executive business meeting where it advanced 3 Article III nominees to the floor. The nominees are Magistrate Judge Joshua Kolar (7th Cir.), Richard Federico (10th Cir.), and Judge Jeffrey Bryan (D. Minn.).

As of September 28, there are 94 Article III vacancies, 69 of which are current. Once the new nominees are officially nominated, there will be 35 pending nominees: 26 waiting for floor votes, 1 waiting to be reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and 8 waiting for hearings before the Committee. To date, 143 Article III judges have been confirmed during the Biden-Harris Administration.