Trump made lasting impact on federal courts
He used the promise of conservative judicial appointments to win over Republican skeptics as a candidate. Then as president, he relied on outside conservative legal organizations and Senate Majority Leader
Indeed, undeterred by Democratic criticism, the Senate was still confirming judges more than a month after Trump lost his reelection bid to
“Trump has basically done more than any president has done in a single term since (President Jimmy)
The impact will be enduring. Among the Trump-appointed judges, who hold lifetime positions, several are still in their 30s. The three
Beyond the
But numbers don't tell the entire story. The real measure of what Trump has been able to do will be revealed in countless court decisions in the years to come on abortion, guns, religious rights and a host of other culture wars issues.
When it came to the president's own legal challenges of the election results, however, judges who have him to thank for their position rebuffed his claims. But in many other important ways, his success with judicial appointments already is paying dividends for conservatives.
When the
Five Trump appointees were in the majority of the 6-4 decision by the full
Last month, Judges
In one early look at Trump’s appointees to federal trial courts, political science professors
“Trump has appointed judges who exhibit a distinct decision-making pattern that is, on the whole, significantly more conservative than previous presidents,” the political scientists concluded in an
The one constant of the past four years — through impeachment, the coronavirus pandemic and Trump’s election loss — has been his nomination of and Senate confirmation of judges.
The president has had several partners in the judicial effort, but none more important than McConnell, who takes particular pride in reshaping the
“I think it’s far and away the most consequential thing I’ve ever been involved in,’’ the 78-year-old McConnell said in an interview. “And it’s the most long-lasting accomplishment of the current administration, by far.’’
They might not have called it a partnership at the time, but their mutually reinforcing work began even before Trump’s election in 2016.
Trump used the issue of the federal judiciary to win trust with voters who might have questions about the conservative credentials of a billionaire real estate developer who had once supported abortion rights and did not have a track record in politics.
He put in writing a list of potential nominees, provided by the conservative
As it happens, there was a high court opening at the time, following the death of Justice
Enter McConnell. The Republican blocked President Barack Obama’s nomination of
It was a gamble at a time when Trump’s electoral prospects seemed dim, but it paid off with his stunning victory over
And the high court seat wasn’t the only one waiting to be filled when Trump took office in
The pace quickened almost immediately.
McConnell and top
Sen.
Whitehouse said Trump essentially “outsourced” judicial nominations to McConnell and the
At the same time, the
Trump “opened the channel for special-interest interference in judicial selection. That I think is very novel and obviously lends itself to corruption,’’ Whitehouse said. “Right wing forces have for decades sought the kind of influence in judicial nominations that the Trump administration outright gave them.’’
McConnell scoffed at the criticism. “The reason a lot of them belong to the
On the campaign trail and at
“You know, when I got in, we had over 100 federal judges that weren’t appointed. Now, I don’t know why Obama left that. It was like a big, beautiful present to all of us. Why the hell did he leave that? Maybe he got complacent,” Trump boasted at one point, omitting the essential fact that McConnell had blocked Obama's nominees.
The high court vacancy at the start of Trump’s term was, in essence, a gift from McConnell. Justice Anthony Kennedy’s decision to retire in 2018 allowed Trump to replace the court’s swing justice with the more conservative Kavanaugh, who survived his own bruising confirmation hearings that included allegations he sexually assaulted a woman when they were both in high school decades ago. Kavanaugh denied the claims.
Less than two months before the 2020 election, Trump was handed another opening with the death of Justice
The Senate has continued confirming Trump nominees even after his defeat for reelection, breaking a norm that has stood since 1900 with one exception, said
The exception was the Senate’s bipartisan acceptance in 1980 of a former Senate staff member as a federal appeals court judge. That nominee was
Along with the question of legacy is whether Trump’s record on judges spurs major changes to the judiciary.
Wheeler, at Brookings, said one of the most striking features of the teamwork of Trump and McConnell is that they acted as though they had the support of most Americans. They did not, he said.
“My main beef with this current group is that there’s just no mandate to turn the judiciary so far to the right,” Wheeler said. “Trump lost the popular vote massively in 2016, but nevertheless has behaved as if he had a mandate to reshape the federal judiciary at the
Liberal groups already have been pushing for changes at the highest level, including expansion of the
But there's less doubt from any vantage point about what Trump has wrought.
The
Not so, in Conway's view. "It will be one of the most lasting pieces of his legacy, distinguished and durable,” she said.
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