This is a guest post by David Goodwin.

Are those bells I hear? Bells chiming at the top of the Judicial Conference headquarters in Justice City, responding to a signal flare from the Administrative Office Citadel in the Jurisdictagon?

We must have new judges!

Yesterday, the Senate confirmed two new Pennsylvania district judges. One, in E.D. Pa., was originally an Obama nominee: John Milton Younge, who takes Judge McLaughlin’s seat, which opened in 2013. The other, William Stickman IV, was confirmed to W.D. Pa., taking Judge Conti’s seat.

The Judiciary Committee’s nominations page, meanwhile, shows two recent nominees reported out of committee: Stephanie Haines and J. Nicholas Ranjan, both W.D. Pa. They join other pending nominees, including Jennifer Wilson (M.D. Pa. and former Fuentes clerk), awaiting full Senate action. [Correction: Judge Ranjan was confirmed last month.]

While Pennsylvania has seen a few recent confirmations, the same cannot be said for the District of New Jersey, which has six openings dating back to February 2015. As far as I can tell, there are no nominations pending.

(DNJ tragically lost two beloved judges, William Walls and Jerome Simandle, who passed away in July.)