During Senate debates over judicial nominations, differing perspectives have been expressed about the relative degree of success of a President's nominees in gaining Senate confirmation, compared with the nominees of other recent Presidents. In light of continued Senate interest in the judicial selection and confirmation process, this report seeks to inform the ongoing debate in four ways: (1) by using various statistical measures to compare the progress of President Obama's judicial nominees, during his first five years, in advancing through the Senate confirmation process with that of the judicial nominees during the first five years of the three most recent preceding Presidents who served two terms (Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton); (2) by providing statistics related to the length of time it has taken President Obama and his three predecessors to nominate individuals to vacant circuit and district court judgeships; and (3) by providing statistics related to judicial vacancies existing at the beginning of each President's fifth and sixth years in office. Bush, and Obama presidencies. Circuit Court Nominees

 Table 1 presents, during the first five years of a presidency for Presidents Reagan through Obama, the total number of circuit court nominees, the total number (and percentage) of circuit nominees confirmed by the end of a President's fifth year in office, the number (and percentage) confirmed after his fifth year, and the number (and percentage) of circuit nominees never confirmed. President Clinton had the lowest percentage of circuit court nominees confirmed by the end of his fifth year in office (69.8%), followed by Presidents Obama (71.9%) and G.W. Bush (93.8%). The number of circuit court nominees confirmed during a fifth year ranged from a high of 22 during the Reagan presidency to a low of 7 during both the Clinton and G.W. Although President Obama had the second greatest number of district court nominees confirmed by the Senate during his fifth year in office, he trailed (as shown in Table 2 ) the other three Presidents in both the overall number and percentage of district court nominees confirmed during the first five years. Length of Time from Nomination to Confirmation

 Figure 2 tracks by President the average and median number of days from nomination to confirmation for all circuit and district court nominees confirmed during a President's first five years in office. In terms of the median number of days from nomination to confirmation, President G.W. The median waiting times from nomination to confirmation for district court nominees ranged from a high of 214.0 days during President Obama's first five years to a low of 31.0 days during President Reagan's first five years. President Obama is the only President of the four for whom, during his first five years in office, a majority of U.S. circuit and district court nominees waited more than six months (approximately 180 days) to be confirmed after being nominated. U.S. Circuit Court Nominees

For confirmed circuit court nominees during the four presidencies, the fewest days, on average, that elapsed from first committee report to confirmation occurred during the first five years of the Reagan presidency (15.8 days). The mean number of days from committee report to confirmation for nominees who were confirmed during a President's first five years increased to 52.7 days during the first five years of the Clinton presidency and then to 109.4 days during the G.W. Bush presidency. U.S. District Court Nominees

As with President Reagan's confirmed circuit court nominees, district court nominees during his first five years waited, on average, a shorter amount of time from committee report to confirmation (12.2 days) than did the district nominees confirmed during the first five years of the three other Presidents. The median number of days for district nominees confirmed during the first five years of the Clinton and G.W. Bush presidencies were 6.0 and 18.0 days, respectively. Table 5 compares for the four Presidents: (i) the percentage of vacant U.S. circuit and district court judgeships on January 1 of a President's fifth year in office; (ii) the percentage of vacant U.S. circuit and district court judgeships vacant on January 1 of a President's sixth year in office; and (iii) the change in the percentage of vacant U.S. circuit and district court judgeships from January 1 of a President fifth's year to January 1 of his sixth year in office. Of the three Presidents, President Obama is the only one for whom the percentage of vacant circuit court judgeships deemed judicial emergencies increased from January 1 of his fifth year to January 1 of his sixth year (increasing from 37.5% to 58.8%).
The selection and confirmation process for U.S. circuit and district court judges is of continuing interest to Congress. Recent Senate debates over judicial nominations have focused on issues such as the relative degree of success of President Barack Obama's nominees in gaining Senate confirmation compared with other recent Presidents, as well as the relative prevalence of vacant judgeships compared to years past, and the effect of delayed judicial appointments on judicial vacancy levels. This report addresses these issues, and others, by providing a statistical analysis of nominations to U.S. circuit and district court judgeships during the first five years of President Obama's time in office and that of his three most recent two-term predecessors. Some of the report's findings include the following:
During his first five years in office, President Obama nominated 57 persons to U.S. circuit court judgeships. Of the 57, 41 (71.9%) were also confirmed during this same five-year period. The 41 confirmed Obama circuit court nominees represented the second-lowest number of nominees confirmed during recent Presidents' first five years. President Clinton had the lowest number at 37. The percentage of circuit court nominees confirmed during President Obama's first five years, 71.9%, was also the second-lowest, while the percentage confirmed during President Clinton's, 69.8%, was the lowest. Of the four Presidents, President Reagan had both the greatest number (55) and percentage (94.8%) of circuit court nominees confirmed within the first five years of his presidency. Of the 226 persons nominated by President Obama to U.S. district court judgeships during his first five years, 173 (76.5%) were confirmed. Of the four Presidents, this was the lowest number and percentage of district court nominees confirmed. Of the comparison group, President Clinton had the greatest number of district court nominees confirmed during his first five years (198) while President Reagan had the greatest percentage of district court nominees confirmed (95.5%)—followed closely by the percentage of district court nominees confirmed during the first five years of the G.W. Bush presidency (93.8%). The average number of days elapsed from nomination to confirmation for circuit court nominees confirmed during a President's first five years ranged from 56.8 days during the Reagan presidency to 402.0 days during the G.W. Bush presidency. The median number of days from nomination to confirmation for circuit court nominees confirmed during a President's first five years ranged from 37.0 days (Reagan) to 245.0 (G.W. Bush). The average and median number of days from nomination to confirmation for President Obama's circuit nominees were 253.7 and 228.0 days, respectively. The average number of days elapsed from nomination to confirmation for district court nominees confirmed during a President's first five years ranged from 50.0 days during the Reagan presidency to 223.3 days during the Obama presidency. The median number of days from nomination to confirmation for district court nominees confirmed during a President's first five years ranged from 31.0 days (Reagan) to 214.0 (Obama). President Obama is the only President of the four for whom, during his first five years in office, a majority of U.S. circuit and district court nominees waited more than 180 days to be confirmed after being nominated. President Obama is the only President of the four for whom there was an increase in the percentage of both U.S. circuit and district court judgeships that were vacant from January 1 of his fifth year in office to January 1 of his sixth year. The percentage of circuit court vacancies deemed "judicial emergencies" increased from January 1 of the fifth year to January 1 of the sixth year of the Obama presidency and decreased over the same period during the Clinton and G.W. Bush presidencies. The percentage of district court vacancies deemed judicial emergencies increased from January 1 of the fifth to the sixth years of the Clinton and Obama presidencies and decreased over the same period during the G.W. Bush presidency.