While President Donald Trump has had a hard time getting many of his other nominees confirmed, he’s actually outpacing his predecessors when it comes to federal judge confirmations.
Trump’s latest judicial appointee was confirmed by the Senate Tuesday:
Alabama lawyer Kevin Christopher Newsom was confirmed to a seat on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 66-31 vote, with 16 Democrats joining the GOP.
He’s the third circuit judge approved so far, and combined with one district judge and Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, puts the president and the GOP-led Senate well ahead of pace.
By comparison, Barack Obama had zero judges confirmed in his first six months. It wasn’t until November 2009 that he managed to get three circuit court nominees approved by the Senate.
George W. Bush had one circuit judge and two district judges confirmed by August of his first term.
White House spokesperson Kelly Love said that Trump’s success with judge confirmations is due to his administration’s “commitment to working with and extensively consulting all senators, regardless of political affiliation, to select high-caliber nominees.”
Furthermore, Trump’s judicial picks could solidify his legacy more than any other area of his presidency:
“The president has his work cut out for him, but reshaping the judiciary by appointing constitutionalist judges may well become the defining feature and most lasting legacy of the Trump administration,” said John Malcolm, legal and judicial studies director for the Heritage Foundation.
Trump still has roughly 137 federal court vacancies to fill. So far he’s announced a total of 28 judicial picks.
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