President Trump Will Fill Two Massive Court Vacancies as He Continues to Shape the Federal Judiciary
Two more vacancies are reportedly opening at the U.S. Court of Appeals that will allow President Donald Trump to increase his footprint over the federal judiciary.
Just the News reported, “Last week, Chief Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton, of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Cincinnati, and Chief Judge Debra Ann Livingston of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City, announced their plans to assume senior status later this year. Both judges were appointed by President George W. Bush.”
Senior status is a form of semi-retirement, and it creates a vacancy for a new appointee.
The Sixth Circuit has a Republican-appointed majority, while the Second Circuit has a one-seat majority for Democrat-appointed judges.
The Second Circuit presents a more consequential opening for Trump, “[g]iven its prominent role in cases involving financial regulation, national security, and major civil litigation, a conservative appointment could have a meaningful impact,” according to Just the News.
Heritage Foundation’s Judicial Appointments Tracker indicates that Trump appointed 26 federal judges last year, compared to 39 for Joe Biden and 12 for Barack Obama during their first year in office.
At the same point in his first term, Trump had filled 19 judicial slots, so appointments are moving at a faster clip this time around.
But Politico noted last month that the overwhelming majority of Trump’s judicial appointments during his second term are at the district court level.
“There simply aren’t as many of the more coveted and more powerful appeals court spots to fill as there were in 2017. That reality, along with more steadfast resistance from Democrats, suggests Trump won’t be able to make as big of an impact on the courts this time around,” the outlet said.
“This is not going to be the same kind of earth shaking four years … we saw in his first four years, when he really did turn the judiciary around in terms of the percentage of judges appointed by Republicans as opposed to Democratic presidents,” Russell Wheeler, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies program, told Politico.
There were over 100 vacancies when Trump first assumed office in 2017, versus about 40 this time.
“Trump appointed 12 appeals-court judges in 2017 — more than any president has gotten in their first year since 1945, according to the Congressional Research Service. He has been able to appoint only six so far in his second term,” Politico said.
So the vacancies created by Sutton and Livingston stepping down are no doubt welcomed.
The Pew Research Center reported in January 2025 that Biden appointed 228 judges total during his four years in office, which is two more than Trump during his first term.
However, Trump appointed 54 appeals court judges compared to Biden’s 45. Further, Trump placed three justices on the U.S. Supreme Court versus Biden’s one.
Joe Biden: “I appointed the most demographically diverse slate of judges ever… on top of that was one of the brightest lawyers I’ve ever met! Ketanji Brown Jackson!”pic.twitter.com/WdxuuV3Yrp
— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) August 1, 2025
An opening at the high court during Biden’s term was looking somewhat doubtful, so Democrats launched a pressure campaign to get Justice Stephen Breyer to step down in 2022. And in an unusual move, Senate Democrats held Jackson’s confirmation hearing even before Breyer left the bench.
SEN. BLACKBURN: “Can you provide a definition of the word ‘woman’?”
JACKSON: “No, I can’t”
BLACKBURN: “You can’t?”
JACKSON: “I’m not a biologist” pic.twitter.com/i7Rg83z5Y4
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 23, 2022
One of the most memorable moments in Jackson’s confirmation hearing was when she could not define what a woman was; nor could she agree with the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s observation that men and women have physical differences.
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