WASHINGTON (CN) — House lawmakers introduced a bill Friday that would add 203 new district court judgeships spread over 47 judicial districts – far surpassing the judiciary’s request earlier this year for 77 new seats across 24 districts.
The judiciary’s proposal, made by the 26-member Judicial Conference of the United States in March, was taken up by Senate Democrats, who introduced a bill for 77 new district court seats on Thursday. The bill, sponsored by Republican Senator Todd Young of Indiana, allows the president to fill 39 new seats in 2025 and 38 new seats in 2029.
But the House bill, introduced by Georgia Democrat Hank Johnson, adds far more than the Judicial Conference requested. It would also increase the number of seats immediately.
Johnson, chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet, said that his proposal addresses a “crisis” occurring in courts around the nation. With over 200 new seats, the District Court Judgeships Act of 2021 reverts to the original standard of 400 case filings per judgeship and would relieve overburdened courts.
“Our lower courts, including in Georgia, are understaffed and overwhelmed,” Johnson said in a statement. “It’s causing massive backlogs and delays. This crisis is one that we can solve now – to have a functioning legal system, we must have an adequate number of judgeships.”
Despite continued requests, comprehensive judgeship legislation hasn’t been passed since 1990 and new district courts seats haven’t been added since 2003 — the longest period in the nation’s history without adding new seats. And with an ever expanding federal docket, judges can’t keep up with the growing country: caseloads in district courts rose 41% for civil cases and 72% for criminal cases from 1990 to 2019.
“The effects of caseload increases without increasing the number of judges are profound,” U.S. District Judge Brian S. Miller for the Eastern District of Arkansas testified before the House Judiciary Committee last month. “Increasing caseloads lead to significant delays in the consideration of cases, especially civil cases which may take years to get to trial.”
Miller said that civil cases usually take between two to four years to get to trial, increasing expenses for civil litigants.
Delays in criminal cases can result in stale evidence, faded witness memories, fewer law enforcement resources and increased time that criminal defendants are held pending trial.
“Substantial delays lead to lack of respect for the judiciary and the judicial process,” Miller continued. “The problem is so severe that potential litigants may be avoiding federal court altogether. One cannot imagine the situation will improve on its own, without additional judges.”
Progressive organizations have been pushing lawmakers to add more seats, saying that the Judicial Conference’s proposal isn’t enough.
“Even if Congress adopted the Judicial Conference’s recommendations in full and added 8 percent to our judiciary, it would be the smallest increase in a comprehensive judgeship bill in modern history,” activists said in a letter to Johnson. “Our current, 30-year period of inattention requires a much greater response.”
Advocates also say that adding judgeships is an opportunity to improve judicial diversity by nominating more women, people of color and those with diverse professional backgrounds.
“The more diverse the perspectives and backgrounds that we bring to any collective body that’s making a decision, the better decisions we are going to get,” Democratic Congresswoman Deborah Ross of North Carolina said at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on July 12.
The Biden administration has made a huge push to offset the conservative, white, male mark made on the federal judiciary during the Trump administration by nominating more diverse and nontraditional judges, but advocates say that more work needs to be done.
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