Democratic appointees are now in the majority on nine federal appeals courts
A change in filibuster rules has helped President Barack Obama rebuild the federal appeals courts to give Democratic appointees an edge.
Excluding senior judges, judges appointed by Democratic presidents outnumber GOP-appointed judges on nine out of 13 federal appeals courts, the New York Times reports. Active Democratic appointees on those appeals courts “considerably outnumber” Republican appointees for the first time in more than a decade, the story says.
When President Obama took office, only one federal appeals court had a majority of full-time Democratic appointees, the story says. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already had more Democrats; the shift occurred on the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd 4th, 10th, 11th, D.C. and Federal Circuits.
Republicans are citing the change in a call for voters to give Republicans control of the Senate this November.
The Times calls the shift “one of the most significant but unheralded accomplishments of the Obama era,” but points out that judges don’t necessarily meet the expectations of the presidents who nominate them.
