Q&A – President Trump’s Judicial Appointments
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Today’s Entry: @brianmuddradio The judicial overreach is B.S.!!! Is @Potus making any progress in appointing new judges?
Bottom Line: Last Monday, my top takeaway was that President Trump was the second most effective President in American history in carrying out his agenda by that date. Specifically, I said this: The BBB was delivered to President Trump allowing him to effectively accomplish his second term agenda in fewer than six months on the job. Trump has been president for 167 days. During that time, he signed 166 executive orders, 44 memoranda, 71 proclamations and five laws. While President Trump has worked with historic speed in accomplishing the needs to complete his domestic agenda to date – one area he’s not worked in at a historic pace has been the federal judiciary.
One reason you’ve not heard of progress in the appointment of new federal judges is because as of now – there haven’t been any in Trump’s second term. And there are two reasons for that, and they both point back to the same dynamic. The political makeup of the Senate preceding President Trump’s first term and second term.
Republicans controlled the senate during the final congress preceding Trump’s first presidency. This allowed the GOP to slow walk President Obama’s judicial appointments (most notably for the Supreme Court), creating many vacancies (retirements, attrition, etc.) by the time President Trump was sworn into office. The result was that President Trump was able to place the highest number of federal judges in the first term of a presidency in modern American history.
Entering Trump’s second term, the dynamic was different. Democrats controlled the senate and used the lame duck period of Biden’s presidency, preceding the change in control of the senate in January, to confirm as many federal judges as possible. In the end, this led to Biden having the second highest number of federal judicial confirmations in a first term in modern American history (only four fewer than Trump).
When Trump came into his second term there were only 40 federal court vacancies. As of today, President Trump has nominated 14 individuals for federal judgeships during his second term. None of these nominees have been confirmed by the Senate yet – largely due to the Senate’s focus on passing the President’s legislative agenda up to this point. Confirming these judges will likely be a focus going forward for the Senate.
Here’s a look at how many active judges are serving by presidential appointment:
- Reagan: 10
- H.W. Bush: 10
- Clinton: 30
- W. Bush: 111
- Obama: 240
- Trump: 229
- Biden: 236
Through this breakout we see that Presidents Obama and Biden currently have the highest number of active judges within federal judiciary. Another way of looking at it...
Percentage of federal judges appointed by Democrats:
- 58%
Compared to 42% by Republicans. Therefore, all other factors being equal, Democrats are likely to find sympathetic judges even without shopping for a particular judge or court. This topic is one of the most important dynamics in American politics that often is overlooked. President Trump managed to meaningfully overhaul the Supreme Court during his first term. It’s important that he works towards reshaping the rest of the federal judiciary in his second administration.