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At the beginning of 2025, there were 40 federal judicial vacancies nationwide, including one in the Indiana Southern District Court.
That number has bumped up to 46, though four district court nominees were announced in Missouri at the beginning of May.
Some legal observers say the pace toward filling those posts is likely to pick up after the congressional recess in August, if President Donald Trump and his administration follow tradition.
Republican Senators Todd Young and Jim Banks are considering applicants for the state’s federal bench vacancy and looking to fill U.S. Attorney openings in Indiana’s Northern and Southern District.
John Collins, an associate professor at George Washington University Law School, said he’s not ready to call the pace “slow” just yet.
Collins said it is not unusual in the first year of a new presidential administration to wait until May to start announcing judicial nominees.
He noted that Trump waited until May in his first term, as did former President George H.W. Bush. Former President Barack Obama’s first judicial nominee came in March 2009, with the nomination of Indiana’s David Hamilton to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, but Collins pointed out that Obama also waited a few months in his first term before announcing a significant number of nominations.
“I think he’s in the normal range so far,” Collins said of Trump.
Collins said there’s plenty of other red state judicial vacancies in addition to the one in Indiana’s Southern District.
Given that the previous administration was Democratic, Collins said he wasn’t surprised the Southern District vacancy remained open through the end of 2024 and into this year.
“I would be surprised if it stayed open for a long time now,” Collins said.
Magnus-Stinson took senior status; Myers, Johnson resigned as U.S. attorneys
Young and Banks announced in January that applications for U.S. district attorney were due Feb. 7. Applications for the district judge opening were due Feb. 21.
The Southern District judge post has been vacant since July 2024, when Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson took senior status.
The district attorney slots became open earlier this month when Clifford Johnson of the state’s Northern District and Zach Myers of the Southern District announced they were stepping down.
Both were nominated to their posts by former President Joe Biden, a Democrat. Both stepped down just before Trump took office Jan. 20.
U.S. District Court judges and U.S. attorneys are nominated by the president and must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. But senators in the state where the judicial officers will serve traditionally provide advice and consent on the presidential nominations.
Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond School of Law professor, said Young is usually attentive to filling judicial vacancies in Indiana’s Northern and Southern Districts.
Tobias said the uncertainty last year with then-Sen. Mike Braun’s gubernatorial campaign may have made it harder to fill the Southern District vacancy before the November election.
“It’s been a pretty long time,” Tobias said.
How long could it take to fill Indiana’s vacancies?
The Indiana Lawyer asked Young’s office how many applications had been submitted for each of the vacant positions and whether there was a timeline for when nominees will be announced.
In response, Leah Selk, Young’s press secretary said in an email, “Our office received multiple applications for each position. We look forward to continuing to work with Senator Banks and the White House on identifying applicants for the positions.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee typically waits 28 days after receiving paperwork to even begin considering nominations.
Tobias said there are several states with multiple vacant federal judgeships, including Texas, Florida and Louisiana.
He said those states could take priority as the Trump administration works with U.S. senators to fill vacancies.
“I think if Young were to ask, he could get some priority for this seat that’s been vacant for so long,” Tobias said of the Indiana Southern District vacancy.
Tobias said that, in terms of filling judicial vacancies, Trump has started more slowly than he did in 2017 in his first term.
The law professor said the White House did announce some federal judge and U.S. attorney nominees earlier this month.
There have been two U.S. attorney nominees announced in Iowa since Trump took office in January, as well as nominees in other states.
Some of Trump’s nominees have been blocked, with The Hill reporting Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) had invoked the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition to block Trump’s appointees to serve as U.S. attorneys in the southern and eastern districts of New York.
Also, Trump withdrew the controversial nomination of Ed Martin Jr. to be the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital, bowing to bipartisan concerns about the conservative activist’s modest legal experience, divisive politics and support for Jan. 6 rioters, according to the Associated Press.
Tobias said there were a lot of acting and interim U.S. attorneys that had been appointed around the country, including Indiana with Acting U. S. Attorneys Tina Nommay (Northern District) and John Childress (Southern District).
He said he thought that Young may have already made recommendations to the White House regarding Indiana’s U.S. attorney vacancies.
“I’m sure there are plenty of fine attorneys. It’s a great stepping stone to politics or something else,” Tobias said of the positions.
Tobias added that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, had been very cooperative so far with judicial nominees.
“The holdup isn’t in the Senate,” Tobias said.
Collins said it’s hard to tell when Indiana’s U.S. attorney openings will be filled.
He said Trump seems pretty content to appoint acting or interim attorneys for now. Since those are not lifetime positions, they are likely not a high priority at the moment for the administration, Collins added.
JUDGES Act
With judicial and U.S. attorney vacancies pending, a new version of a proposed federal law to add 66 new judgeships to federal district courts is also being considered.
The JUDGES, Act of 2024 was co-authored by Young and U.S. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware). It proposed creating new judgeships every two years, beginning in 2025 and ending in 2035, affording the next two to three presidents the opportunity to appoint judges.
Thirteen states, including Indiana, California, Florida, New York and Texas, would have received new judgeships. It would add 66 new federal judgeships in the most overburdened areas of the country, including Indianapolis and the Southern District of Indiana.
Courthouse News Service reported that the new bill keeps the same number of additional judges and would stagger those appointments over more than a decade, potentially allowing several presidential administrations to select new judges. Trump would be the first to have such a privilege, according to the bill.
Tobias said the revised bill is now on the House floor. He said Young would probably like to see the bill pass and signed into law, which would result in an additional judge for Indiana’s Southern District.
Collins said he wasn’t sure if a second version of the JUDGES Act would be successful.
He said Senate Democrats will be reluctant to create additional judicial vacancies for Trump to fill during his second term. •
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