Aided by fellow Republicans in the US Senate, US President Donald Trump is rapidly filling vacancies in US appeals courts, moving some that had liberal majorities closer to conservative control in an ideological shift that could benefit his administration.
The 13 appeals courts wield considerable power, usually providing the last word on rulings appealed from lower courts on disputes involving federal law.
Their rulings can be challenged before the US Supreme Court, but most such appeals are turned away, because the top court typically hears fewer than 100 cases annually.
Eleven of the courts handle cases from specific multistate regions and one handles cases from Washington, while another specializes in patent cases.
Presidents can reshape the federal judiciary with their appointments and seek to appoint judges who they believe share their ideological leanings. Republicans typically strive to pick conservatives, while Democrats generally aim to appoint liberals, all subject to Senate confirmation.
Although there are no guarantees that a judge will rule the way a president might like, the number of Republican and Democratic appointees is generally an indicator of an appeals court’s conservative-liberal balance.
With the Republican-led Senate rapidly considering and confirming many of his judicial nominees, Trump has already appointed 26 appeals court judges.
That is more than any other president in the first two years of a presidency, Brookings Institution visiting fellow Russell Wheeler said, but added that there are now more appellate judges in the US than in the past.
Former US president Barack Obama appointed 55 judges over eight years.
Only four of the 13 federal appeals courts have more Republican-appointed judges than Democratic selections.
The two appellate courts closest to shifting to Republican-appointed majorities are the Atlanta, Georgia-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals and the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Third US Circuit Court of Appeals.
Trump has made three appointments to the 11th Circuit, leaving it with a 6-6 split between Democratic and Republican appointees. The Third Circuit, to which Trump has made one appointment, now has a 7-5 Democratic-appointee majority, with two vacancies for Trump to fill.
Should further vacancies open up in those courts, Trump’s appointees would tip the ideological balance.
The ideological “flipping” of a judicial circuit, where cases typically are decided by panels of three judges, can have a direct impact on how cases are decided and new legal precedents established.
Cases before circuit courts span a wide range of issues, including hot-button topics, such as abortion, gay rights, the death penalty and voting rights, and regulatory and business disputes, employment law and the environment.
Trump pledged as a candidate in 2016 to appoint conservatives to the bench. So far, he has largely kept his promise.
Many of Trump’s judicial nominees have close ties to the Federalist Society conservative legal group, which organizes networking events and conferences for lawyers and law students.
Trump inherited a large number of vacancies, in part because the Senate — controlled by Republicans since 2015 — refused to act on some of Obama’s nominees.
There are 13 appeals court vacancies, six of which have pending nominees picked by Trump, according the Administrative Office of the US Courts.
Both the 11th Circuit and Third Circuit have major cases pending in which Trump appointees could make their mark.
An 11th Circuit three-judge panel on July 25 revived a civil rights lawsuit challenging the state of Alabama’s move to prevent the city of Birmingham from increasing the minimum wage.
Alabama has asked for a rehearing, which would be heard by the entire 12-judge 11th Circuit if the request is granted.
In the Third Circuit, the Trump administration has appealed a lower court decision blocking the US Department of Justice from cutting off grants to Philadelphia over so-called “sanctuary city” policies limiting local cooperation with federal authorities on immigration enforcement.
When Obama took office in 2009 after US president George W. Bush’s eight years in office, the courts were tilted heavily toward Republican appointees, with only one having a majority of Democratic appointees. When Obama left office last year, nine of the 13 regional courts had majority Democratic appointees.
Flipping courts that have solid Democratic-appointee majorities will be difficult for Trump. The San Francisco-based Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals has seven vacancies and Trump has already filled one.
Even if Trump fills all of them, Democratic appointees would still hold a 16-13 majority.
Trump and conservative allies have criticized the 9th Circuit for high-profile rulings against his administration including over the legality of the president’s ban on people entering the US from certain Muslim-majority countries.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the