The Trump Judiciary

• In Event: Judicial Selection and Appointments

Abstract

Although President Donald Trump frequently finds himself embroiled in controversy and criticism of policies from his travel ban to the border wall, one topic on which he finds far less opposition generally, and far greater unity among congressional Republicans and Republican voters, is his appointments to the federal judiciary. As of January 1, 2020, President Trump had gotten nearly 190 federal judges through Senate confirmation. While his appointments to the Supreme Court (Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh) get the lion's share of the public's attention, his appointments to the federal circuit courts of appeals and federal district courts have effectively reshaped the federal judiciary for years to come.

In this paper, I examine Trump’s appointments to the federal courts and the process through which those appointments were made. On the confirmation side, the president and his nominees have certainly benefitted from the removal of the filibuster from debate on all levels of federal judicial nominees. However, that alone does not explain the president’s success in getting his judges on the federal courts. What factors at the nomination stage have led to President Trump’s unprecedented success in appointing federal judges? What are the implications for future presidents’ judicial appointments?

Author

• Christine L. Nemacheck, College of William & Mary