Trump Quietly Putting His Stamp on Courts

US President Donald Trump has been quietly making lifetime appointments to fill more than 100 vacancies on federal courts across the country.

With five judges confirmed, another 30 pending and 123 seats left to fill, according to one group tracking the numbers, Trump has the opportunity to revamp the judiciary branch and carve out a legacy for himself that could stand the test of time, The Hill reported.

“It can’t be overstated the impact the individuals he’s appointing will have on millions of people across the country and their children for a generation or two,” said Dan Goldberg, legal director at the liberal Alliance for Justice.

“The Supreme Court only hears about 80 cases a year and 99% of cases end in the federal courts of appeal or at the trial level.”

Trump’s biggest achievement in office so far has been the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, for whom Republicans changed the Senate rules to get confirmed with a simple majority vote.

While another appointment to the high court in Trump’s presidency is possible or even likely, given the ages of several justices, it is appointments to the lower district and circuit courts where the president is likely to have a bigger impact.

Ilya Shapiro, a member of the conservative Federalist Society and senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, said only one of the 13 federal circuit courts had a majority of judges appointed by Democrats when Obama took office.  

When Obama left office, nine of the 13 courts had a majority of Democratic appointed judges, Shapiro said.

The senate has already confirmed two of Trump’s judicial nominees to the Cincinnati-based 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals — Kentucky natives Amul Thapar and John Bush.

Bush was one of Trump’s most controversial picks so far.

“This is an individual who had no right being a federal judge,” Goldberg said.

“There are a lot of Republican lawyers out there who the president could have nominated, but instead he nominated someone who had an anonymous blog and used it to express fringe views and extreme hostility to people of different communities.”

In blog posts written under the pseudonym “G. Morris” on Elephantsinthebluegrass.com, Bush called Roe v. Wade, which recognized a women’s constitutional right to an abortion, and Dred Scott, which affirmed slavery, “the two greatest tragedies in our country.” He also wrote about Obama’s ties to Kenya, quoting sites that spread conspiracy theories about Obama’s citizenship.