A bipartisan group of senators announced Tuesday they have reintroduced legislation aimed at alleviating the burden on overworked courts by creating 66 new district judgeships after the next two presidential elections. The Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solved, or JUDGES, Act is a response to a recommendation from the Judicial Conference of the United States that was put forward earlier this year.
The proposed bill was introduced by Sens. Todd Young, Chris Coons, James Lankford, and Alex Padilla. They argue that the backlog of cases due to a lack of judges is detrimental to Americans’ access to the justice system.
The legislation outlines a plan to establish new judgeships in multiple states, starting from January 21, 2025, and a second batch from January 21, 2029. Additionally, the bill proposes the creation of temporary judgeships in some jurisdictions and the conversion of temporary judgeships in others to permanent status.
Although the legislation aligns with the recommendations from the Judicial Conference in many ways, it does not propose the creation of two permanent judgeships on the Ninth Circuit, which has been a subject of contention.
This bill comes in the wake of a reported 30% increase in district court filings since the last update in 2003. However, it doesn’t aim to address existing vacancies, rather, it focuses on the issue of overworked district courts as observed by the Judicial Conference.
The same legislation was also introduced in 2020 and 2021. While there has historically been bipartisan support for the addition of more judgeships, the challenge as reported, lies with both political parties fearing seats will be filled by a president of the opposite party.
To find out more about this legislation, you can read the full Law360 article.