President Trump has appointed judges to the federal appeals courts at a record-setting pace.
The Trump appointees are far less diverse than Mr. Obama’s, with two-thirds of them white men.
The new judges have been selected for their rock-solid conservative credentials, including at least seven that had previous jobs with Mr. Trump’s campaign or his administration.
All but eight had ties to the Federalist Society, a legal group with views once considered on “the fringe.”
Now, as he seeks a second term, Mr. Trump can boast of having named more than a quarter of all judges on the appeals courts, 51 to date.
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A Conservative Agenda Unleashed on the Federal Courts
As a Republican candidate for the Texas Supreme Court, Don R. Willett flaunted his uncompromising conservatism, boasting of endorsements from groups with “pro-life, pro-faith, pro-family” credentials.
“I intend to build such a fiercely conservative record on the court that I will be unconfirmable for any future federal judicial post — and proudly so,” a Republican rival quoted him telling party leaders.
Judge Willett served a dozen years on the Texas bench. But rather than disqualifying him, his record there propelled him to the very job he had deemed beyond reach. President Trump nominated him to a federal appeals court, and Republicans in the Senate narrowly confirmed him on a party-line vote.
As Mr. Trump seeks re-election, his rightward overhaul of the federal judiciary — in particular, the highly influential appeals courts — has been invoked as one of his most enduring accomplishments. While individual nominees have drawn scrutiny, The New York Times conducted a deep examination of all 51 new appellate judges to obtain a collective portrait of the Trump-populated bench.
The review shows that the Trump class of appellate judges, much like the president himself, breaks significantly with the norms set by his Democratic and Republican predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
The lifetime appointees — who make up more than a quarter of the entire appellate bench — were more openly engaged in causes important to Republicans, such as opposition to gay marriage and to government funding for abortion.
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