Vindicating my own skepticism about claims that many new appellate judgeships need to be created, the Judicial Conference of the United States has just issued its recommendation for only two new appellate judgeships, both in the Ninth Circuit.

That’s down from the Judicial Conference’s recommendation two years ago for five new Ninth Circuit judgeships. On this trend, if we wait two more years, the Judicial Conference will recommend reducing the Ninth Circuit by a seat.

Further, I’m reliably informed (though I can’t find the information online yet) that the Judicial Conference has recommended that, due to light workload, one of the twelve active judgeships on the Tenth Circuit should be left vacant. (There are currently two vacancies on that court.)