NEW (thread coming): This week, the chief judge of the federal district court for the Central District of California wrote a letter to the White House, CA senators, and Senate Judiciary leadership imploring them to act faster on filling vacant seats: assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6535… 
As swiftly as the Trump admin and Senate Republicans have moved on judicial nominations, there are still a lot of vacancies, especially at the district court level (the White House has prioritized circuit court seats)
As Chief Judge Virginia Phillips notes in her Oct. 29 letter, the caseload for judges in her court has only gone up. The Central District of CA vacancies are what the federal judiciary considers "emergencies" based on the volume of cases. Here's that list: uscourts.gov/judges-judgesh…
Phillips makes clear that she's not endorsing any specific nominees, but tells the WH and senators that she wanted to "draw your attention to the grave danger these vacancies pose to our Court's ability to serve justice in a timely and judicious manner."
That's the end of the thread. There are a lot of stories and issues to follow when it comes to federal court nominations and confirmations, and judicial emergencies is one of them (and one that judges and judiciary officials care about quite a bit)
