Senate Panel Advances Bipartisan Bill to Add Dozens of Federal Judges

A file photo of a judge's gavel. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on June 13 to advance a bill that would incrementally add dozens of federal judges to the court system over 10 years.

If passed and signed by the president, the bill would make many temporary judgeships permanent while setting up a series of additions every two years until 2035. In total, 66 federal judgeships would supplement the 677 authorized district court seats in the United States.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers sponsored the bill after a March 2023 request for 66 judges by the Judicial Conference of the United States, which makes policy for the federal court system.

Dubbed the Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solved Act (JUDGES) of 2024, the bill passed the committee with a 20–0 vote after changes that made the additions more incremental over time.

An earlier version of the bill would have added half of the new judges in 2025 and the other half in 2029. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a longtime Judiciary Committee member, said during the June 13 hearing that he long opposed adding new judges. However, he supported the legislation after it included a more incremental timeframe.

Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said that structure would allow Congress “to effectively respond to our judiciary’s needs without giving any advantage to one party or one single president.”

The recently passed version would allow the president to appoint 11 additional district judges across the United States in 2025, 11 in 2027, 10 in 2029, 11 in 2031, 10 in 2033, and 10 in 2035. Three other judgeships for Oklahoma would be temporary.

The increases are set for 25 districts, with the vast majority of the additions in California, Texas, Florida, and New York. Districts in Delaware, New Jersey, Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, and Nebraska would also receive new judges.

Increasing Workload

If passed, it would constitute the first time since 1990 that Congress enacted comprehensive judgeship legislation. According to the Senate bill, this is “the longest period of time since district courts of the United States were established in 1789 that Congress has not authorized any new permanent district court judgeships.”

A similar bill came from the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Ranking Member Hank Johnson (D-Ga.). Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Todd Young (R-Ind.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) are sponsoring the legislation in the other chamber.

Lawmakers in both chambers cited the increasing number of cases filed in district courts.

“Our federal courts ... are understaffed and overwhelmed,” Mr. Johnson said in a March press release.

In a June 13 release, Mr. Young said: “Too many Hoosiers and Americans are being denied access to our justice system due to an overload of cases and a shortage of judges.”

According to the Senate bill, district courts saw a 30 percent increase in filings since the last comprehensive legislation, with 686,797 pending cases as of March 31, 2023. The court system faced an average of “491 weighted case filings per judgeship over a 12-month period,” according to the legislation.

Mr. Grassley said he would have liked to create a way to allow judges in under-worked districts to move to busier ones as a solution.

U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) speaks to the media on April 4, 2022, in Washington.  Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

In its 2023 request, the Judicial Conference said it generally required that average to be over 430 weighted filings. For Fiscal Year 2022, the number exceeded 500 in 17 courts, 600 in eight courts, and 700 in three courts.

The bill comes amid legislators’ calls for reform within both the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal court system. Democrats, in particular, have called for ethics reform at the nation’s highest court and an end to so-called judge shopping in lower courts following controversy surrounding judges at both levels.

In March, the Judicial Conference announced a policy requiring random assignment of judges when civil actions “seek to bar or mandate state or federal actions.”

It’s unclear when or whether the Senate bill in its current form will pass on a floor vote. The office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’s request for comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the Subcommittee chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa. The Epoch Times regrets the error.