Thread by @unseen1_unseen

There has been a lot of talk about Trump appointing judges during his term. It's a very big bright spot for his admin. So let's dig into the numbers and compare to Obama and Bush numbers. Per Ballotpedia there are a total of 874 Article 3 judges in the USA.

This further breaks down into 9 SCOTUS seats, 179 seats on the Appeals courts, 677 seats at the district level and 9 seats on Court of international trade. (Obama and Bush numbers are for all 8 years. Trump's numbers are for 2.75 years.)

There were a total of 327 article 3 judges appointed by President Bush:

2 SCOTUS Judges (including a Chief justice) (
62 appeals court judges
261 district court judges
2 International trade court judges

There were a total of 329 article 3 judges appointed by President Obama:

2 SCOTUS court judges
55 appeals court judges
268 district court judges
4 international trade court judges

There have been a total of 152 article 3 judges appointed by President Trump(so far):

2 SCOTUS court judges
43 appeals court judges
105 district court judges
2 Internal Trade court judges

Each President appointed 22.2% of the current SCOTUS. Pres Clinton appointed another 22.2% and President Bush the first appointed 11.2%.

For the lower courts retirements and deaths have changed the % and I don't feel like researching how many are still on the courts from each

Instead, I'll just post the % of the court they were able to appoint. Just understand this isn't the current make up of the courts.

Bush the 2nd was able to appoint
34.6% of the appeals court
38.5% of the district courts
22.2% of the International trade court

President Obama was able to appoint
30.7% of the appeals court
39.6% of the district courts
44.4% of the international trade court

President Trump (so far) has been able to appoint:
24% of the appeals court
15.5% of the district courts
22% of the International Trade court.

There are currently 97 vacancies on Article 3 courts that are waiting to be filled with another 13 seats that will be vacant before Trump's term ends. ( 7 appeals court seats, 101 district court seats and 2 international trade court seats)

Of those 97 vacancies Trump has nominated 35 judges. they are awaiting Senate confirmation ( 2 appeals court and 33 district judges)

If all vacancies are filled before the end of Trump's first term (which I see little reason to suggest they won't be) then....

...President Trump will have had the following record on judges in his first term (barring any other retirements or deaths of judges):

22% of SCOTUS
27.9% of appeals court
30.4% of district courts
44.4% of International Trade court.

These numbers stack up well against the 2 former Presidents records and theirs were for 8 years while Trump's are for only 4 years. In other words, regardless of the election outcome in Nov 2020, Trump and McConnell have made sure Trump will have a generational impact on the USA.

A final couple of points. I didn't check to see if the total amount of judges increased during the last 18 years. If they did the % will be off. I assumed that the total number of seats remained constant. Trump has only been able to rack up these numbers because the GOP controls

..the Senate. It's imperative for those that want the courts to be re-shaped that the GOP keeps the Senate in 2020 & Trump wins re-election. If both occur, 4 more years of judge appointments could easily see 50% of the courts be reshaped with 44- 55% of SCOTUS appointed by Trump.

Update: I forgot to mention that the 43 appeal judges appointed by President Trump are the most at this period of time in a term for any President in history. Obama only had 19 at this point, Bush had 27 and Clinton had 26. Next to SCOTUS, appeals courts are the most powerful.