Plenty Of Room On Bench 102 Federal Judgeships Waiting To Be Filled

Blame it on a Senate Republican stall, a weak White House or the natural byproduct of divided government, but the result is that 102 federal judgeships - one out of every eight - are now vacant.

In California alone, 10 of the 51 federal trial judgeships are open, as are 9 of the 28 positions on the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over several Western states.

Last month, the 9th Circuit’s chief judge said 600 hearings on cases ranging from business disputes to environmental claims had been canceled due to the shortage of judges.

This week, leaders of the American Bar Association and six other national legal groups said the “extraordinary number of vacant federal judgeships” is a “looming crisis” hanging over the nation’s system of justice. They noted that in the past 18 months, only one federal appeals court judge has won confirmation in the Senate.

But in Washington, the unusual number of court vacancies has been largely ignored by political leaders. President Clinton, to the dismay of his legal advisers, has been silent on the issue. The charge of naming “liberal judges” has seemed to paralyze his administration.

Last year, when GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole charged Clinton with having put “liberal activists” on the bench, the White House responded by condemning one of its own appointees, U.S. District Judge Harold Baer of New York, for throwing out some evidence in a drug case.

During the election year, the White House sent only a handful of court nominations to the Senate. Despite a recent rush of nominations, the administration still has named only 39 candidates to fill the 102 vacancies.