Twenty Years of Empty Seats in Texas' Federal Courts

Ed. note: the following is cross-posted from the Texas Research Institute.

Texas has eleven empty seats in its federal courts. That’s more vacancies than any other state in the country, and a new court vacancy will come up on May 1.

When you add the length of those vacancies together, it adds up to twenty years of vacant court seats in Texas’ federal courts.

Earlier this week, Senator John Cornyn – who has purposefully delayed filling the vacancies for years – signaled he is now committed to working with President Obama to fill five of Texas’ current and future vacancies:

"This disagreement over the Supreme Court is not going to stop my commitment to work across the aisle to help Texas and Texans. And to that end, we've been working with White House on five judicial nominations," Cornyn said.

Twenty years of empty court seats is inexcusable. However, admitting there’s a problem is the first step to recovery. 

We'll see if Senator Cornyn keeps his promise, and gets swift hearings and confirmations for Texas' nominees. And hopefully, as he does, he's able to continue working with the White House and fill the remaining vacancies as soon as possible.

A full list of Texas' judicial vacancies can be found here, or in the table below.

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