Trump ain't quite there yet on judicial appointments

Politics
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Trump made some recent comments that were not quite accurate in regards to his judicial appointments.

First of all, President Carter still holds the single term judicial appointment record and likely will still hold it when the current Presidential term expires on January 20th 2021.

Including a United States District Judge that will be confirmed tomorrow (9/24/20), Trump will have appointed 218 Article III Judges, including 2 Supreme Court Justices, 53 Circuit Judges, 161 District Judges and 2 Trade Court Judges.

Carter appointed 262 Article III Judges including 0 Supreme Court Justices, 56 Circuit Judges, 203 District Court Judges, 1 Judge to the United States Court of Claims and 2 Judges to the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals.

Trump would need to make 42 more Article III appointments to tie Carter and 43 to take the record outright. Trump currently has 34 District Judge and 1 Trade Judge nominee pending. Add Barrett’s likely nomination (and the Circuit Judge nomination to fill Barrett’s existing seat) and that is a total of 37 Article III nominees. Barrett’s nomination and the replacement Circuit Judge nomination will both consume a substantial amount of the Senate’s time, crowding out some of the District Judge nominees and the Trade Court Judge nominee.

Realistically, Trump will get at the outside 25 more Judges confirmed, leaving him well short of Carter’s record, though he will have sole possession of second place.

Percentage wise, Trump’s 218 appointments out of 870 Article III Judgeships total is 25.06%.

Carter’s 262 appointments out of the then existing 672 Article III Judgeships total is 38.99%.

Reagan’s 383 appointments out of the then exist 757 Article III Judgeships total is 50.59%.

Of course, nobody is likely to beat Washington’s 100%. :smile: But Reagan has the highest percentage in the modern era.

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I think 3 SCOTUS is worth the difference with Carter.

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by the end of his 2nd term, Trump will have 6 SCOTUS and more than 1/2 of the rest.

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I believe it too.
Conservative judges on SCOTUS should let Trump replace them if they’re advanced in age.
RBG wasn’t humble and unselfish enough to step down in good times.
Amazing how a “brilliant” mind like her can step in it so bad and miscalculate worse than a toddler would do.
But I blame Liberals who put her on a such high pedestal where the power went to her head and made her believe life and fate is there ONLY to serve their needs.

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judging by ages, if he wins he may be replacing breyer, thomas and alito

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Yep…I believe so.

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Or none of them if they try to hang on like Ginsburg did.

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breyer is 82, but a dem, so maybe. thomas is 78 i believe and there’s already been talk of him retiring. alito maybe not, he’s only 72 i think, he could be there another 15 years

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I am referring to total number of Article III Judges in a single term, to reflect the comment that Trump made. And in some aspects Carter’s heavy impact on the Courts of Appeals influenced the Article III Courts very heavily, as most cases never make it to the Supreme Court.

Yes, we could engage in comparisons as you mentioned, but I was trying to answer back to the main gist of Trump’s comment.

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Assuming he wins, of course. That we will not know until about November 14th to November 17th.

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That applies to Thomas as well. As a black man of his particular ancestry, he is about at the point of living on borrowed time.

Maybe HE might miscalculate, Biden might win and he might die as Ginsburg did.

If that scenario comes to pass, will the same posters who have been referring to Ginsburg as selfish, a toddler, etc., use the same terminology about Thomas.

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I believe Justice Thomas is healthy?

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My dad was healthy. Up to the day he dropped dead out of the blue at 87.

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I’m sorry for your loss.

Politically, I agree timing is an issue. The decision is obviously his.

I think he has done an outstanding job and will support whatever decision he makes.

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fairly certain most in history have retired in the 2nd term of the presidency of the party of the president who appointed them (or tried to). if Trump loses, jr will get it back in 2024. by the time president harris and pelosi get done turning the nation into a mirror of CA, the dems will be done.

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Absolutely. But I don’t believe Thomas would do same as she did. Let’s wait and see.
She was in her eighties already when faced with possibility of 8 years of Rep. President.
Thomas is too smart to push his luck.

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he’s not politically stupid either. he may announce his intention to retire in the fall term, making retaining a conservative majority a more urgent issue for conservatives.

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Hope so.