Trump Faces Obstacles in Bid to Re-Shape Key U.S. Courts
President Donald Trump’s effort to reshape influential U.S. courts by stocking them with conservative judges faces at least one significant impediment, reports Reuters: some of the courts best placed to thwart his agenda have liberal majorities that are likely to stay in place in the short-term.
“Those courts, including an influential Washington appeals court and two appellate courts that ruled against Trump in cases involving his travel ban, all had an influx of fresh liberal blood under President Barack Obama,” writes Lawrence Hurley.
Hurley explains that in Obama’s eight years in office, he was able to make enough appointments to leave a strong liberal imprint on the federal courts. At the end of his second term, nine of the 13 federal appeals courts had a majority of Democratic-appointed judges.
