Trump Touts Having Appointed 191 Federal Judges

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WASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Senate has now confirmed 191 federal judges nominated by President Donald Trump.

Trump tweeted on Sunday, "191 Federal Judges (a record), and two Supreme Court Justices, approved."

Fox News was reporting on Thursday the Senate had already "confirmed 192 Trump-appointed federal judges. At the current rate of approval, it expects Trump will fill the remaining 79 current vacancies plus new vacancies arising prior to the end of his term in 2020.

According to the Heritage Foundation, Trump has placed 50 judges on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It's here where Trump is having the greatest effect in reshaping the federal judiciary.

The 179 judges seated on the 13 U.S. Circuit Courts rule on some 35,000 cases per year. Fewer than 100 cases pass on to the U.S. Supreme Court annually. Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director at the Judicial Crisis Network, emphasized the impact such judges have on this nation's rule of law.

"The Supreme Court takes very few cases. There's not an opportunity to correct every error made, and when you have activist judges at the lower levels of the federal judiciary, that can have a damaging effect on [the] American system and rule of law," remarked Severino.

Trump inherited a federal judiciary stacked with left-leaning appointments from former two-term president Barrack Obama. But Trump has already flipped the 2nd, 3rd and 11th Circuit Courts by replacing Democrat appointees with judges recommended by the conservative Federalist Society — an organization that fosters an originalist interpretation of the Constitution at various law schools across the country, as well as through forums and sponsored debates.

The Federalist Society is coming under increasing scrutiny by its leftist critics. The ethical advisory arm of the federal judiciary is reportedly circulating a draft rule that would ban judges and clerks from belonging to the organization.

The late Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia is held up as the icon of the originalist approach. Scalia stood in opposition to so-called judicial activists who claim the Constitution is a living document that adapts to the times.

"The Constitution that I interpret and apply is not living but dead, or as I prefer to call it, enduring," clarified Scalia. "It means today not what current society, much less the Court, thinks it ought to mean, but what it meant when it was adopted."

Trump now has his eye on flipping the notorious 9th Circuit Court, which has garnered a reputation for left-wing, activist rulings. The court — called the "Nutty Ninth" by its critics for its activist decisions — ruled in favor of Trump's "family planning" rule that redirected some $60 million in Title X funding away from abortion centers like Planned Parenthood and sent it to pro-life pregnancy centers instead.

One person who understands the effect Trump's judges will have on the country is Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In 2016, she lamented, "I can't imagine what the country would be with Donald Trump as our president. For the country, it could be four years. For the Court, it could be — I don't even want to contemplate that."

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