This can remake the court for generations, an incredibly important thing when we’re fighting to bring the three branches of government back to sanity.
Donald Trump moved fairly quickly in the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to fill the Scalia Seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.
The hearings have moved more slowly than many of us would have liked, but Mitch McConnell is promising an up or down vote by April 7, regardless of any attempts by Democrats to filibuster. Whether Republicans will exercise the Nuclear Option is a current media obsession.
Yet there is another aspect of the federal judiciary on which Trump can have a lasting legacy, the lower federal courts (appeals and district courts).
As previously mentioned, there are currently over 100 vacancies, and many more are likely to open up, Liberal nightmare: Trump could appoint half federal judiciary.
In mid-February The NY Times noted Trump’s opportunity, though the reaction from the Democratic base has been somewhat muted on that, perhaps because they are fixated on Gorsuch:
In the weeks since taking office, President Trump has derided court decisions as “ridiculous” and “disgraceful,” called the legitimacy of federal judges into question and encouraged people to blame the courts in the event of another terrorist attack.
But Mr. Trump could soon find himself responsible for appointing a greater share of federal court judges than any first-term president in 40 years, in large part because of a growing number of older judges and a stack of vacancies on the federal courts.