As of August 2026, the US federal judiciary has 890 authorized judgeships across the Supreme Court, appeals courts, district courts, and specialty courts, with 26 vacancies remaining after President Trump’s administration confirmed 45 Article III judges during his second term. District judges earn $249,900 a year in 2026, while the Chief Justice of the United States tops the judicial pay scale at $320,700.
Federal Judges in US 2026 – Introduction
Federal judge statistics in the US reveal a judiciary stretched between rising caseloads and a judgeship count that has barely grown in decades. The core structure has remained remarkably stable since the last major judgeship expansion: 677 district court seats, 179 appeals court seats, and 9 Supreme Court justices form the backbone of the Article III federal bench, supplemented by 9 Court of International Trade judges and 16 Court of Federal Claims judges. Despite US district courts handling well over 380,000 case filings a year, Congress has not meaningfully expanded the district court bench in years — a proposed expansion, the JUDGES Act of 2024, which would have added 66 new permanent district judgeships over a decade, was vetoed and never became law.
2026 has been a notably active year for the federal bench regardless. President Trump’s second-term judicial confirmation pace accelerated through the year, pushing his combined first- and second-term total past the 279 mark, while vacancy counts fell sharply from a high of 41 openings in February down to just 26 by late August as the Senate worked through his nominees. At the same time, the federal courts themselves have continued managing a caseload shaped by shifting immigration enforcement, tariff litigation, and a steady stream of constitutional challenges to executive branch actions — work that falls, ultimately, on roughly 870 Article III judges serving across the country.
Interesting Facts about Federal Judges in US 2026
| Category | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total authorized federal judgeships (tracked) | 890 |
| US District Court judgeships | 677 |
| US Courts of Appeals judgeships | 179 |
| US Supreme Court justices | 9 |
| Federal judicial vacancies (August 2026) | 26 |
| Chief Justice salary (2026) | $320,700 |
| District judge salary (2026) | $249,900 |
| Trump’s combined (both terms) Article III appointments (as of mid-2026) | 279 |
| District court total filings (year ending Sept. 2025) | 382,692 |
The most consequential fact for anyone tracking the federal judiciary in 2026 is how little the core bench has grown relative to the country it serves. The 677 district court judgeships currently authorized is a number that has been adjusted only incrementally since the last major expansion decades ago, even as the US population — and the volume of federal litigation — has grown substantially. The JUDGES Act of 2024, a bipartisan effort to add 66 new district judgeships across 13 states experiencing significant caseload pressure, cleared Congress but was ultimately vetoed, leaving judges in the most overloaded districts to absorb growing caseloads without additional colleagues.
Vacancy trends tell their own story about how confirmation politics shape the functioning bench. Federal judicial vacancies peaked at 41 openings in February 2026 before falling steadily through the year — to 37 in March, 34 in April, 27 in June, and down to just 25-26 by midsummer and late August — reflecting an accelerating pace of Senate confirmations for President Trump’s nominees as 2026’s midterm election cycle approached, even as a tight Senate floor schedule complicated the pipeline for additional appellate picks.
How Many Federal Judges Are There in 2026
FEDERAL JUDGESHIPS BY COURT TYPE, 2026
DISTRICT COURTS ███████████████████████████████████ 677
COURTS OF APPEALS ██████████ 179
COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS █ 16
COURT OF INTL TRADE █ 9
SUPREME COURT █ 9
| Court | Authorized Judgeships |
|---|---|
| US District Courts (94 districts, incl. territorial courts) | 677 |
| US Courts of Appeals (13 circuits) | 179 |
| US Court of Federal Claims | 16 |
| US Court of International Trade | 9 |
| US Supreme Court | 9 |
| Total tracked judgeships | 890 |
| US Bankruptcy Court judgeships (Article I, separate system) | 350 |
Data Source: Administrative Office of the US Courts, Ballotpedia Federal Judicial Vacancy Count
The federal judiciary’s structure runs across 94 district courts and 13 appellate circuits, with the 677 district court judgeships forming by far the largest single category and functioning as the trial-level workhorse of the federal system. The 13 courts of appeals, including the influential DC Circuit — which gains particular expertise in administrative and constitutional law given its jurisdiction over federal agency headquarters — carry 179 judgeships between them, handling appeals from the district courts below. Sitting above all of them, the Supreme Court remains fixed at 9 justices, a number set by the Judiciary Act of 1869 and unchanged since, despite periodic political proposals to expand it.
Beyond the core Article III courts, the federal system also includes 9 judgeships on the US Court of International Trade, which has taken on outsized importance in 2026 given its role adjudicating major tariff litigation, and 16 judgeships on the US Court of Federal Claims, which hears monetary claims against the federal government. Separately, the federal bankruptcy system operates 350 judgeships under Article I rather than Article III, meaning bankruptcy judges are appointed for fixed 14-year terms by the courts of appeals rather than nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate for life tenure. For more on how federal courts intersect with major 2026 trade litigation, see our US Tariff Refund Statistics report.
Federal Judge Salaries in 2026
FEDERAL JUDICIAL SALARY SCALE, 2026
CHIEF JUSTICE ████████████████████████████████████████ $320,700
ASSOCIATE JUSTICE ██████████████████████████████████████ $306,600
CIRCUIT JUDGE █████████████████████████████████ $264,900
DISTRICT JUDGE ████████████████████████████████ $249,900
MAGISTRATE/BANKRUPTCY JUDGE ███████████████████████████████ $229,908
| Position | 2026 Annual Salary |
|---|---|
| Chief Justice of the United States | $320,700 |
| Associate Justice, Supreme Court | $306,600 |
| Circuit Judge (Courts of Appeals) | $264,900 |
| District Judge | $249,900 |
| Magistrate Judge / Bankruptcy Judge | $229,908 (92% of district judge pay) |
Data Source: Federal Judicial Center, 28 U.S.C. § 5
Federal judicial salaries in 2026 follow a tightly tiered structure set directly by Congress rather than by any independent commission. At the top, the Chief Justice earns $320,700 a year, a figure that places the role second only to the President in the federal executive pay hierarchy and modestly above the Vice President’s payable salary. Associate Justices of the Supreme Court earn $306,600, a gap of just $14,100 below the Chief Justice despite the considerably greater administrative workload the Chief Justice carries in overseeing the entire federal court system.
Moving down the hierarchy, circuit judges on the courts of appeals earn $264,900, while district judges — the entry point for most federal judicial careers and the position overseeing the bulk of federal trial-level litigation — earn $249,900. Magistrate judges and bankruptcy judges, both Article I positions appointed for fixed terms rather than for life, are statutorily capped at 92% of a district judge’s salary, putting their 2026 pay at $229,908. Notably, legal analysts have pointed out that even senior associates at major law firms regularly out-earn federal judges below the Supreme Court, a persistent pay gap that has fueled recurring debate over judicial compensation relative to private-sector legal salaries.
Federal Judicial Vacancies in 2026
FEDERAL JUDICIAL VACANCIES THROUGH 2026
Feb 2026 ████████████████████████████████████████ 41
Apr 2026 ██████████████████████████████████ 34
Jun 2026 ███████████████████████████ 27
Jul 2026 █████████████████████████ 25
Aug 2026 ██████████████████████████ 26
| Month (2026) | Total Vacancies | District Court Vacancies | Appeals Court Vacancies |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41 | 40 | 0 |
| February | 41 | 40 | 0 |
| March | 36 | 35 | 0 |
| April | 34 | 33 | 0 |
| June | 27 | 26 | 0 |
| July | 25 | 25 | 0 |
| August | 26 | 26 | 0 |
Data Source: Administrative Office of the US Courts, Vacancy Summary Reports
Federal judicial vacancies tracked a clear downward trend through most of 2026, falling from 41 openings in January and February to roughly 25-26 by midsummer and late August, as the Senate steadily worked through President Trump’s backlog of judicial nominees. Notably, appeals court vacancies sat at zero for the entire year, meaning every sitting vacancy throughout 2026 existed exclusively at the district court level — a reflection of how aggressively the administration and Senate Republicans prioritized filling the more consequential, precedent-setting circuit court seats first, leaving district court openings to be worked through more gradually.
That near-complete absence of circuit vacancies also explains why 2026 saw fewer new appeals court confirmations than Trump’s first term produced at the same point: with Democratic-appointed judges still holding the line in several circuits and relatively few judges opting to retire or take senior status during a Republican administration, the pool of genuinely open appellate seats to fill remained smaller than it was in 2017. Judicial vacancy and emergency reports are updated monthly and remain one of the most closely watched real-time indicators of how quickly the federal bench is being replenished.
Trump’s Judicial Appointments in 2026
TRUMP'S COMBINED FEDERAL JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS
FIRST TERM (2017-2021) ████████████████████████████████ 234
SECOND TERM (as of mid-2026) ██████████████ 45
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| First-term Article III appointments (2017-2021) | 234 (3 SCOTUS, 54 appellate, 174 district, 3 CIT) |
| Second-term Article III confirmations (as of July 2026) | 45 |
| Combined career total (as of mid-2026) | 279 |
| 2025 calendar-year confirmations | 26 (6 circuit, 20 district) |
| Senate confirmations since late 2025 report | Largest single-period total of the second term |
| Courts of Appeals ideological composition (July 2026) | 92 Republican-appointed, 87 Democratic-appointed (of 179) |
| District Courts ideological composition (Sept. 2026) | 279 Republican-appointed, 375 Democratic-appointed (of 680 filled seats) |
Data Source: Ballotpedia, Roll Call, Bloomberg Law
President Trump’s second-term judicial confirmation effort accelerated meaningfully through 2026, with the Senate confirming 45 of his Article III nominees by early July, pushing his combined first- and second-term career total to 279 federal judicial appointments — a number that trails only a small handful of presidents in US history. That pace built on 2025’s total of 26 lifetime confirmations (six to the circuit courts, twenty to the district courts), a figure that, while behind the confirmation rate set by President Biden’s final years, outpaced Trump’s own first-term confirmation rate at the same point in 2017.
The ideological composition of the bench, however, tells a more complicated story than raw confirmation counts alone suggest: as of July 2026, Republican-appointed judges held a narrow 92-87 edge on the courts of appeals, while Democratic appointees still outnumbered Republican appointees on the district courts by a wider 375-279 margin as of September 2026 — a legacy of the many district seats filled during the Biden administration that Trump’s second term has had comparatively fewer opportunities to flip, given how few sitting judges have chosen to retire or take senior status during a Republican presidency. Analysts have also noted that this year’s nominee pool skews younger than the first term’s, with roughly half of nominees receiving confirmation hearings in 2026 being 44 years old or younger, a deliberate strategy to maximize the duration of each appointee’s influence on the bench. For related coverage of how federal courts have handled major constitutional litigation this year, see our Birthright Citizenship Statistics in US report.
Federal Court Caseloads in 2026
US DISTRICT COURT FILINGS, YEAR ENDING SEPT. 2025
CIVIL CASE FILINGS ████████████████████████████████ 303,563
CRIMINAL DEFENDANT FILINGS ██████████ 79,129
TOTAL DISTRICT FILINGS █████████████████████████████████████ 382,692
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total US district court filings | 382,692 (up 6% year-over-year) |
| Civil case filings | 303,563 (up 4%) |
| Criminal defendant filings | 79,129 (up 13%) |
| Regional courts of appeals filings | 41,824 (up 5%) |
| District judgeships unchanged since | JUDGES Act of 2024 expansion vetoed, never enacted |
Data Source: Administrative Office of the US Courts, Judicial Business 2025 report
US district courts handled 382,692 combined civil and criminal defendant filings in the 12-month reporting period ending in 2025, a 6% increase over the prior year, driven by a 4% rise in civil filings to 303,563 and a sharper 13% jump in criminal defendant filings to 79,129. Regional courts of appeals saw their own filings climb 5% to 41,824, reflecting a federal appellate system absorbing more appeals even as its judgeship count has stayed fixed at 179 for years.
That caseload growth lands directly on a bench whose size Congress has declined to meaningfully expand: the JUDGES Act of 2024, which would have added 66 new permanent district judgeships phased in over a decade across 13 states with documented caseload pressure — including Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas — passed Congress but was vetoed, leaving the Judicial Conference of the United States’ own recommended staffing levels unmet. Individual district courts have responded by relying more heavily on senior judges, who continue hearing cases after taking senior status but are not counted toward the official judgeship total, meaning the formal 677-seat district court figure understates the actual judicial capacity deployed in many of the country’s busiest districts. For context on how comparable international judicial bodies are staffed relative to their caseloads, see our International Criminal Court Statistics report.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many federal judges are there in the US?
As of 2026, the US federal judiciary has 890 total authorized judgeships tracked across the Supreme Court, courts of appeals, district courts, and specialty courts, with 677 of those at the district court level and 179 at the appeals court level. A separate system of 350 bankruptcy judgeships operates under Article I.
How much does a federal judge make in 2026?
District judges earn $249,900 a year in 2026, circuit judges earn $264,900, Associate Supreme Court Justices earn $306,600, and the Chief Justice earns $320,700. Magistrate and bankruptcy judges earn $229,908, set at 92% of a district judge’s salary.
How many federal judicial vacancies are there right now?
Federal judicial vacancies stood at 26 as of the August 2026 report, down from a 2026 high of 41 in February. Every vacancy throughout 2026 was at the district court level, with zero appeals court vacancies reported all year.
How many judges has Trump appointed to the federal bench?
As of mid-2026, President Trump’s combined first- and second-term Article III judicial appointments total 279, including 234 from his first term (2017-2021) and 45 confirmed during his second term through early July 2026.
How many cases do federal courts handle each year?
US district courts handled 382,692 combined civil and criminal defendant case filings in the most recent full reporting year, while the regional courts of appeals handled 41,824 filings, both representing year-over-year increases.
Why hasn’t Congress added more federal judgeships?
The JUDGES Act of 2024, a bipartisan bill that would have created 66 new permanent district judgeships over a decade to address caseload pressure in high-volume states, passed Congress but was vetoed and never became law, leaving the district court judgeship count unchanged at 677 despite rising case filings.
How are federal judges appointed?
Under Article III of the Constitution, federal judges — including Supreme Court justices, appeals court judges, and district court judges — are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and serve lifetime appointments absent impeachment and removal.
What is the political breakdown of the federal judiciary in 2026?
As of mid-to-late 2026, Republican appointees hold a narrow 92-87 majority on the courts of appeals, while Democratic appointees outnumber Republican appointees on the district courts, roughly 375-279, reflecting the cumulative effect of appointments across multiple presidential administrations.
Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.
