WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) today celebrated the bipartisan passage of their Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solved (JUDGES) Act of 2024 out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by a unanimous vote of 20-0. The bill would add 66 new federal judgeships in districts across the country to help address rising caseloads and ensure that Americans have swift access to justice regardless of where they live.
“I’m delighted that the Senate Judiciary Committee has gotten serious about the crisis facing overworked judges across the country today by taking up and advancing my bipartisan JUDGES Act to the Senate floor,” said Senator Coons. “For too long, Congress has failed to add new federal judgeships to keep pace with the rising caseloads around the country, and our nation’s federal courts – especially in Delaware, where there are only four active judgeships – have paid the price. Senator Young and I worked with members of the committee on both sides of the dais to amend this bill and make it stronger; that the bill garnered unanimous support is a testament to the legislative process working as it should and as Americans deserve. I hope my Senate colleagues will follow the committee’s lead and pass this bill so we can get our judiciary working again.”
“Too many Hoosiers and Americans are being denied access to our justice system due to an overload of cases and a shortage of judges,” said Senator Young. “Our bipartisan bill will help alleviate this shortage and ensure all Americans have the opportunity to have their day in court. Senator Coons and I have worked diligently with our colleagues to ensure this legislation effectively addresses these judicial shortages and fairly distributes the additional judgeships across multiple presidential administrations. Today’s unanimous vote on our amended bill is a testament to bipartisanship and commonsense legislating. I urge the full Senate to pass this important legislation as soon as possible.”
Federal courts across the country face crushing caseloads, as newly authorized judgeships fail to keep pace with population growth and increased case filings. Indeed, Congress has not authorized a new judgeship in more than two decades, and a comprehensive package of new judgeships like the one proposed in the JUDGES Act has not been enacted in nearly 35 years. Since then, the population of the United States has increased by nearly 100 million people, and federal case filings have skyrocketed by 40%. This has had severe consequences for our justice system, including significant delays in case resolution and burnout for overburdened judges.
This bipartisan bill would address this problem by increasing the number of federal district judges in the most overworked regions of the country. Based on the 2023 findings of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the bill would establish the 66 recommended judgeships, splitting the new judges into six tranches spread across three presidential administrations. In total, the bill would add judgeships in 25 districts across 13 states.
The JUDGES Act of 2024 was introduced in April 2024 by Senators Coons and Young, along with U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).
The full text of the bill can be found here.