Older Judges and Vacant Seats Give Trump Huge Power to Shape American Courts
President Trump could soon find himself responsible for appointing a greater share of federal court judges than any first-term president in 40 years, in large part because of a growing number of older judges and a stack of vacancies on the federal courts, according to a report in The New York Times.
Most of the vacant seats are on district courts or appeals courts, explains Josh Katz in the article. Many of those seats have been vacant because of Republican obstruction in blocking votes for former President Obama’s nominees, Democrats charge.
“It’s not just vacancies. The federal bench has many judges who are older than 70,” writes Katz. “Federal judges are appointed for life, but at a certain combination of years served and age, they become eligible to accept ‘senior status,’ a form of semi-retirement.