Trump ska sätta dit den 150:e federala domare i denna vecka - Kommer han lyckas?

After three years in office, President Trump has remade the federal judiciary, ensuring a conservative tilt for decades and cementing his legacy no matter the outcome of November’s election.

Trump nominees make up 1 in 4 U.S. circuit court judges. Two of his picks sit on the Supreme Court. And this past week, as the House voted to impeach the president, the Republican-led Senate confirmed an additional 13 district court judges.

In total, Trump has installed 187 judges to the federal bench.

The 13 circuit courts are the second most powerful in the nation, serving as a last stop for appeals on lower court rulings, unless the case is taken up by the Supreme Court. So far, Trump has appointed 50 judges to circuit court benches. Comparatively, by this point in President Obama’s first term, he had confirmed 25. At the end of his eight years, he had appointed 55 circuit judges.

Trump’s appointments have flipped three circuit courts to majority GOP-appointed judges, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York. The president has also selected younger conservatives for these lifetime appointments, ensuring his impact is felt for many years.

The executor of this aggressive push is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is almost singularly focused on reshaping the federal judiciary, twice ramming through Senate rule changes to speed up confirmations over Democrats’ objections.

“Leave no vacancy behind” is his mantra, McConnell has stated publicly. With a 53-to-47 Senate majority, he has been able to fill openings at breakneck speed.

Måhända, men vem fan bryr sig så länge Moscow Mitch avlar fram (som en somalier) konservativa domare som sedan ska knulla libs? You tell me

Julia Ioffe

And why were there so many vacancies for Trump to fill in the first place? "“I’ll tell you why. I was in charge of what we did the last two years of the Obama administration,” McConnell said, laughing."

There are the big, juicy political developments, of the sort that require double-sized headlines on front pages and, eventually, their own chapters in history books.

And there are the quiet, incremental ones. But both matter.

Last week, the world watched as articles of impeachment against President Trump were first introduced in Congress, five days before they were approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in a historic vote.

But something else also happened in the Capitol last week that could affect California, and other western states, for decades to come.

The U.S. Senate confirmed two more Trump nominees to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, a powerful federal appeals court long regarded as a liberal bastion. (The reality of that reputation has starkly waned in recent years, but more on that below.)

Judges Lawrence VanDyke and Patrick Bumatay, who are both in their 40s, will serve lifetime appointments. Their ascent to the bench means that Trump appointees now account for more than a third of the active judges on the very same court that the president has repeatedly attacked as being adversarial to his agenda.

A bastion of liberalism in the federal judiciary is slowly turning rightward, threatening Democratic court challenges on everything from abortion to who gets a green card.

The Senate confirmation of Lawrence VanDyke and Patrick Bumatay to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this month brought to nine the number of appointments President Donald Trump has made to the 29-member bench that serves as the last stop for nearly all legal complaints lodged in nine Western states. Democratic-appointed judges now hold a three-seat majority, compared with 11 at the start of Trump's presidency.

If the trend continues, it represents a major shift in the liberal wing of the judiciary, meaning lawsuits for progressive causes won’t find a friendly ear as easily as they have. The circuit has been the go-to venue for activist state attorneys eager to freeze Trump policies on health care, immigration and other social issues. It ruled against Trump's weakening of Obamacare's contraceptive mandate, as well as multiple versions of his travel ban.

Marco Rubio

Media obsessed with Dem impeaching @POTUS & ignored GOP Senate confirming 13 more judges this week alone.

Impeachment is better for ratings,but what is going to matter more & longer?

A partisan impeachment?

Or 187 judges including 1/4 of appellate courts?

Happy Sunday!

😀