This bill would add many new permanent district court judgeships across the United States over several years (effective January 21 of 2029, 2031, 2033, 2035, 2037, and 2039). It updates the official table of judgeships in title 28, United States Code, to show the new number of judges in specific districts. The bill also creates one temporary judgeship for the Eastern District of Oklahoma with a rule that the first vacancy more than five years after confirmation would not be filled. It makes small organization changes for Texas (adding College Station) and California (adding El Centro) districts. The bill requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report on judicial caseload measures and on federal detention space. It also requires the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to publish the Judicial Conference's judgeship recommendation report online and to send copies to congressional judiciary committees. The bill authorizes specific yearly appropriations to carry out these changes and an annual inflation adjustment tied to the Consumer Price Index.
If this bill becomes law, more federal district judge positions would be created in the districts named in the bill on the dates listed. The government would be authorized to spend defined amounts to support those judgeships. The Administrative Office would make the Judicial Conference judgeship recommendations publicly available, and the GAO would produce reports on caseload measures and detention space. Residents in the listed districts would see the official number of judges increase as the law takes effect on the specified dates.
The bill authorizes the following amounts to carry out the judgeship additions and related amendments (these are authorizations, not actual outlays):
The bill says each yearly authorization will be increased by the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The bill text includes findings used by supporters to justify the measure. Those findings state that Congress has not created a new permanent district judgeship since 2003 and has not passed broad judgeship legislation since 1990. The bill notes that filings in district courts rose by 30 percent since the last comprehensive judgeship law and that, as of March 31, 2023, there were 686,797 pending cases. The Judicial Conference requested 66 new district court judgeships in its 2023 report. Supporters present these facts as reasons to add judgeships and to make judgeship recommendations and caseload data more public.
No publicly available information.