This is not the familiar narrative about judicial candidates where Republican intransigence in the Senate is weighed against the slow pace of White House nominations. Whereas judicial vacancies decreased both during the Clinton and George W. Bush Administrations—especially the latter—they have increased during the Obama Administration.

The reason there are so many vacancies without nominees is that certain senators are making strategic choices not to recommend federal trial-court nominees to the White House. These lawmakers are saying that they would rather have no one interpreting federal law in their states than to have more Obama-appointed judges interpreting the law. What's missing from the political equation is that it's the citizens in these states who are hurt by lengthy case delays.

This is a form of secession because it represents a hollowing out of the federal judiciary to an extent that limits federal authority over millions of citizens. It's an intentional act by the legislative branch to keep the judicial branch from effectively performing its constitutionally mandated functions. And it's a neutering of a co-equal branch achieved without a constitutional amendment or statute, or even much public debate, about expressly limiting judicial power.

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There are currently 59 federal court vacancies for which there are no pending nominees. This number represents more than half the number of current vacancies in total, including those seats for which there are nominees. Thirty-nine are current vacancies, that is to say, federal judicial seats that now sit empty. The other 20 are future vacancies, seats that will soon become vacant because their current occupants have declared that they wish to retire or take senior status.

Of the 39 current judicial vacancies without a nominee, more than 30 are in districts in states that have at least one Republican senator. Half the total—at least 19—come from states with two Republican senators. Of the 20 future vacancies without nominees, roughly 15 come from states with at least one Republican senator. And, again, roughly half (at least nine) come from states with two Republican senators.

Today in Texas, for example, there are seven vacancies without nominees on the federal-trial bench and two appellate vacancies without nominees assigned to Texas on the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Texas litigants are so under-served that there are today in Texas and the Fifth Circuit seven "judicial emergencies" cited by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. This sorry state of affairs evidently is okay with Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.

It also sucks to be a federal litigant in Kentucky, a relatively smaller state where there are currently four federal-trial vacancies for which there are no nominees. One of these districts, vacant now for more than two years, has been deemed another one of those "judicial emergency" districts because of dire case delays. Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, both Republicans, appear to be in no rush to come to the aid of their fellow Kentuckians who seek relief in court.