Eight Years and Counting: The Longest Current Judicial Vacancy and the Political Dynamic That Produced It

This focus examines the longest current federal judicial vacancy in the US and the dynamic that produced it. That dynamic involves the reapportionment of federal appellate judicial seats among the states for political, rather than representational, purposes. Although, this political dynamic has largely gone unnoticed, it recently has contributed to two of the longest judicial vacancies in history and it should therefore receive greater scrutiny given the deleterious effects such vacancies have on the administration of justice. Adapted from the source document.