The federal judiciary’s policymaking body has once again recommended that Congress create two new seats on Colorado’s seven-member trial court.

On Tuesday, the Judicial Conference of the United States released its list of districts in which the workload merits additional judges, with the largest increases requested in the federal trial courts for California, Texas and Florida. Nationwide, the Judicial Conference has requested 66 new judgeships, and the conversion of some temporary positions to permanent ones.

The Judicial Conference’s recommendation of two new seats for Colorado has held constant since 2019, with no congressional action. The last time Colorado gained a seat on its U.S. District Court was in 1984, when the population was roughly half of what it is today.

“As Colorado’s population continues to grow, we must ensure additional judges are added to the state’s district court, which is why I’ve led efforts in the House Judiciary Committee to do precisely that,” said U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, who introduced legislation in the previous Congress to add three seats in Colorado.

“I’m hopeful that my colleagues will support the recommendations of the Judicial Conference, which comports with my legislation to add additional seats to the Colorado federal District Court, and I’ll continue to lead congressional action to do so,” Neguse added in a statement.

A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper said that Hickenlooper, along with U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, plan to reintroduce their own proposal to give Colorado three more trial judges. The office of U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, who sits in the Republican majority on the House Judiciary Committee, did not immediately respond to a question about his support for additional judges.

Currently, there is one vacancy on Colorado’s trial court bench, with a second coming up in June. The Biden administration has sent its nominees – U.S. Magistrate Judges Gordon P. Gallagher and S. Kato Crews – to the Senate, where both are awaiting confirmation.

In 2022, there were 3,904 case filings in Colorado’s U.S. District Court. The number reflected a slight decrease from 2019, the busiest year in recent history in which over 4,400 cases were filed. Similarly, cases per judge eased slightly last year, at 558 combined civil and criminal matters each.

The Judicial Conference also released a statistical overview of federal case filings, noting that both civil and criminal caseloads fell during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The Conference consists of 26 members, including the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the chief judges of the circuit courts of appeals and a handful of district judges.

Although Colorado’s U.S. District Court has remained at seven “active” judges for nearly four decades, the court has been able to manage its caseload in other ways. Since 2021, three judges have taken a form of semi-retirement known as senior status, in which they continue to handle cases part time while creating a vacancy for the president to fill. There are also currently nine full- and part-time magistrate judges, who are able to handle nearly all of the same tasks as the life-tenured district judges.