Judicial vacancies have remained uniquely high throughout Barack Obama’s presidency, creating unprecedented workloads for sitting district court judges and denying justice to millions of Americans. The president and Senate must find a way to fill these crucial seats.

Special interest spending dominated this week’s primary for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, with the conservative Wisconsin Club for Growth spending more than $300,000 on television advertisements in support of incumbent Justice Pat Roggensack.

The 2012 campaign saw record spending in state supreme court races, spending millions on TV ads and mailers seeking to influence judicial races. At the same time, voters rebuffed a series of costly campaigns seeking to make courts accountable to partisans and special interests.

Television ad spending for state Supreme Court races surpassed $13.5 million this week — more than was spent in all of 2010 — as the judicial campaign season enters what is traditionally its highest-spending period, according to data released by the Brennan Center for Justice and Justice at Stake.