During the 2016 campaign, many of us saw the election as being about the naming of a justice to the Supreme Court, along with many other judicial appointments from coast to coast.
As my conservative friend from Dallas said to me: “If judges are going to decide what marriage is, then let’s make sure that we put judges in who actually understand the U.S. Constitution.”
To date, Trump has nominated 44 federal judges and scored eight confirmations, including Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Eleven of the president’s nominations are to circuit courts and 23 are to district courts. The nine others are to specialty courts such as the Court of Claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, and the U.S. Tax Court. While the Supreme Court was a paramount issue during the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump entered office with about twice as many lower court vacancies as predecessor Barack Obama had — presenting an opportunity to reshape the federal bench.
The nation’s highest court hears only a limited number of cases, so appeals court judges and even district judges can have significant sway over judicial precedent.
By comparison, Obama nominated 15 district and 12 circuit nominees during his entire first year in office, as well as nominating Sonia Sotomayor to an open seat on the Supreme Court.
During that first year, Obama scored 10 confirmations by the Senate, including Sotomayor’s. In the first 200 days of 2009, he nominated only five appeals judges and four district judges.
Trump has taken some criticism for not filling executive branch jobs more quickly. But the same cannot be said for appointments to the judiciary, as he is also surpassing Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton in the first 200 days.
Trump entered office Jan. 20 with 105 judicial vacancies, about twice as many as Obama’s 54 openings. And more judges have left the bench over the last half year, bringing the current number of vacancies to 138.
Last week, before going on a two-week “working vacation” at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump submitted a sixth wave of judicial candidates to the Senate, this time with 10 nominees.
We can’t guarantee that each one of these judges will turn out to be a Neil Gorsuch. However, there is safety in numbers, and there are more nominations coming.
Very well done, President Trump.
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