Here’s How Trump’s Judicial Nominees Are Stacking Up So Far
The judicial candidates of the second term of President Donald Trump share similar qualities with his first mandate choices, although a limited number of vacant positions mean that its impact remains an open question.
Trump started this quarter with only 40 vacant stations to fill, less than half of the open seats when he inherited to start in his first mandate. Confirm 234 judges on the federal bench, including three judges from the Supreme Court, is often considered by the conservatives as the largest achievement of Trump in the first mandate.
Now, with 49 open seats, Trump appointed 15 candidates and confirmed five, according to the tracker of the judicial appointments of the Heritage Foundation. Confirmation hearings took place for all candidates except one.
“I really don’t see much difference between the caliber of the nominees in Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0,” said Professor Josh Blackman of the South Texas College of Law, Josh Blackman.
The story of Trump’s second mandate is a “lack of judgments” to fill, Michael A. Fragoso, who was the chief lawyer of the Senate’s judicial committee for candidates during the confirmation of Judge Amy CONEY BARRETT in 2020, wrote in an article of August 20 for public speech.
“There has never been a Senate which is better placed to confirm the conservative judges, but not since the first Bush administration, there have been so few seats to fill,” wrote Fragoso. (Related: The Senate confirms Trump’s first judicial choice to replace the named by the Obama)
“ Political advantage ”
Trump unloaded the founder of the Federalist Society, Leonard Leo, calling it as “Sleazebag” which “in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own distinct ambitions” in a social article of truth.
Despite his split with the organization which had an influence in the shape of his first mandate choices, Trump’s latest candidates share similar qualities on paper with those he selected during his first mandate, although they can have more political experience and “audacity”.
Robert Luther III, a former lawyer for the White House who worked on judicial appointments during Trump’s first term, said that he saw no significant difference in quality or context of the last candidates. The recent choices of district courts “very young and very conservative of Trump could have easily been recommended for appointment if they had come before, he said.
“Many people have asked for what the judges are different, I would say that you have to turn to the Senate to see how the senators are different,” he told DCNF.
Republican senses. Ashley Moody from Florida and Eric Schmitt from Missouri allowed an “even more aggressive judges” of their states, he said.
Joshua Divine, who was confirmed as a federal district judge for the Missouri’s eastern district in July, was previously the state solicitor, where he worked on a major case contesting the pressure by the Biden Administration of the Pressure of Platforms to censor the speech online.
“President Trump continues to select highly qualified judicial candidates who will respect the rule of law and closely follow the Constitution,” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson, at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Meet the 4 exceptional Missourians that Trump called on his first judicial candidates: Josh Divine, Maria Lanahan, Zachary Bluestone & Cris Stevens
We waited four long years for these judges. We will confirm them. And they will be an excellent credit for the Missouri pic.twitter.com/ouc5mqat1g
– Josh Hawley (@hawleyymo) June 4, 2025
Four other candidates were confirmed before the recess of the August Congress: Emil Bove at the third Circuit Court of Appeals and Whitney Downs Hermandorfer in the sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, as well as Zachary Bluestone and Cristian Stevens to judgments in the Oriental Missouri District.
Trump’s “current harvesting of judges is very similar to the last lot on paper, in possession of a more political advantage”, wrote Fragoso for public speech.
“The real difference is that amazing, all Trump’s choices have experience in what could be called republican policy,” he wrote. “Whether it is campaign work, committee service, federal or federal political appointments or even elected functions, they have all spent time in political struggle.”
Luther warned against the drawing conclusions too early with such a small sample size, noting that it is easy to “over-analyze” how different a person could be or the same when there are fewer nominees to compare.
Blue Slip Battles
Trump expressed his frustration in the face of the rhythm of confirmations, calling the senate judicial president, Chuck Grassley, for the maintenance of blue slips, which allow senators of the original state to block the candidates.
“I have the constitutional right to appoint American judges and lawyers, but this right was completely removed from the states which have only one American democratic senator,” he wrote on August 24 on Truth Social. “Consequently, the only candidates that I can be confirmed for these most important positions are, believe it or not, the Democrats! Chuck Grassley should allow powerful republican candidates to go up to these very vital and powerful roles, and say to the Democrats, as they often tell us, to go to hell!”
Grassley stressed that any American judge or lawyer without a blue slip has the votes to be confirmed or leave the committee.
“As president, I put Pres Trump names to succeed and not failure,” he wrote on August 25 on X.
Blue Slips also allowed the Republicans to keep 30 liberals out of the bench during the Biden administration, wrote Grassley.
“I think that if the Slip Blue was abolished, it could allow Trump to confirm the candidates for the conservative district courts in the Blue States, but if the tables were shot, the Democratic presidents could confirm the candidates of the district court in the far left in the red states,” Blackman told DCNF. “I understand why senators want to keep this prerogative.”
Luther does not blame Grassley for not having deleted the blue briefs, which he believes “disproportionately injured the republican presidents”, because there are not enough votes.
Some of the seats that Trump inherited at the start of his mandate, including four North Carolina choices that he announced nominees for August 22, were open because the Republican senators prevented Biden from filling them.
The Republican senses of North Carolina. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd have kept the seats open by refusing to approve a choice of Biden. Tillis announced his retirement in July after Trump attacked him for opposing the “big and beautiful bill”.
“President Trump keeps his promise to the American people by proposing daring and intrepid judicial candidates,” said Mike Davis, founder and president of the article III project in a statement after Trump announced the candidates of North Carolina. “These four exceptional people demonstrate his strong commitment to maintaining the rule of law and to move away from the era of radical judicial activism which infected our courts.”
With fewer seats at stake, some call for more judges to retire.
“I encourage any conservative appeal judge who is eligible to retire or to take the status of senior to do so, because there are very impressive and working people in the office of the White House lawyer who will guarantee that a strong conservative judge succeeds them,” said Luther.
Chief judge of the American district court in the Pennsylvania Oriental District Mitchell Goldberg, a George. The named of W. Bush, recently confirmed his retirement on Tuesday, opening a seat when he left on September 19.
American district judge David Godbey, appointed by George W. Bush in the Northern Texas District, also informed the court on August 20 that he intended to take a main status in September, opening another seat.
Stressing Trump’s decision to appoint Bove, who was previously his personal defense lawyer and a senior MJ official during the first months of the administration, the former federal prosecutor Brendan Ballou suggested in a recent Atlantic article that the judges could delay the retirement of concern for those who will name Trump.
“Whether the White House wishes to recognize it or not, the caliber of its first judicial appointments will affect the number of vacant posts which he obtains to be filled,” also wrote the professor of the law faculty William & Mary, Jonathan Adler, on X in May. “This is why Bove’s appointment was a risky choice (even outside the merits).”
Luther said it is very likely that some judges just don’t want to retire.
“The majority of people named Republicans who are eligible to retire have also been eligible to retire during Trump’s first term,” he told DCNF.
Blackman wrote in June that judges Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito “would probably not want someone like the three names Trump to replace them”.
“They would like someone who votes like them,” he wrote. “Bove would probably fill the mold.”
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