In the nearly three years that Donald Trump has been president, he has appointed 159 federal judges, including 114 district court judges, 43 appeals judges, and two Supreme Court justices. In addition, 55 more judges have been nominated by Trump and are awaiting confirmation by the Senate. (By comparison, Barack Obama only appointed 171 judges in his entire first term.)
Now, the New York Post reports that as a result of Trump’s efforts, federal courts that were reliably liberal in their rulings are now leaning more conservative — or at least a lot closer to the center.
Changing the judiciary
According to the Post, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, now has a majority of Republican-appointed judges. The Second Circuit in New York and the Eleventh Circuit, which covers Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, are also both close to being majority Republican-appointed.
The Ninth Circuit is still dominated by Democrats, but Trump has narrowed the gap to 16 Democrats and 12 Republicans, with several more vacancies to fill, according to the Post.
And while the Supreme Court now has a solid conservative majority, many cases won’t ever get that far, and will end up in the appeals courts. This makes Trump’s conservative appointments even more important — and looking forward, those appointments could have big impacts on how our government runs.
Indeed, many conservatives have expressed concern in recent years over the power of the administrative state over people’s lives.
According to our Constitution, federal power should rest equally in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, with these three co-equal parts of government each providing checks and balances on the others. But the rise of the administrative state — which consists of unelected federal bureaucrats who have ended up running large parts of the government by default — has led to many unfortunate and unforeseen circumstances, such as phony investigations of the president and controversial “whistleblower” complaints.
When disputes arise that involve the administrative state or when overreach begins to impact governance, the courts can be an important resource to rein in bureaucrats so they don’t gain even more power — and with conservatives on the bench, it’s all but guaranteed that the courts will side with the American people.
Delivering on promises
This is good news for Trump as he looks to 2020. Mike Davis — who is the “president of The Article III Project, which works to help secure the confirmation of Trump’s picks,” according to Fox News — told Fox that Trump has fulfilled yet another a promise he made to voters in 2016.
“President Trump has delivered on his promise to American voters” by appointing Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh “and an all-time-record number of circuit judges to the critically important federal courts of appeals,” Davis said, according to Fox.
Indeed, Trump’s judicial accomplishments will probably be his most impactful, as they could affect the way the courts rule for decades to come.
Democrats will have a lot of work to do to overcome Trump’s victory in the courts as it is — and if Trump is re-elected in 2020… Well, best of luck to them.
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