{"id":701677,"date":"2026-10-21T13:01:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T17:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?post_type=short-read&p=701677"},"modified":"2026-10-21T13:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T17:01:14","slug":"pace-of-trumps-judicial-appointments-has-slowed-in-his-second-term","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2026\/10\/21\/pace-of-trumps-judicial-appointments-has-slowed-in-his-second-term\/","title":{"rendered":"Pace of Trump\u2019s Judicial Appointments Has Slowed in His Second Term"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Donald Trump has appointed fewer federal judges so far in his second term than at the same point in his first term. In fact, Trump\u2019s pace of judicial appointments trails that of most other recent presidents, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Judicial Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The analysis comes ahead of midterm elections that will decide control of the U.S. Senate. If Democrats take control of the chamber from Republicans in November, they could further slow<\/a> Trump\u2019s judicial appointments. Judges are an important part of every president\u2019s legacy because they have lifetime appointments, so they can serve long after the president who appointed them leaves office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About this research<\/summary>\n

This analysis looks at the pace of President Donald Trump\u2019s judicial appointments almost halfway through his second term and how it compares to the pace of his recent predecessors at the same point in their terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did we do this?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Pew Research Center does research to inform the public, journalists and decision-makers. This analysis builds on our previous work about presidents\u2019 judicial appointments<\/a>. We also study other presidential actions, such as executive orders<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did we do this?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We used the Federal Judicial Center\u2019s Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges<\/a> to determine how many judges each recent president had appointed through Oct. 15 of the second year of their term. The Federal Judicial Center is the research and education arm of the federal judiciary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We counted judges as \u201cappointed\u201d if the Senate voted to confirm them on or before the Oct. 15 cutoff for this analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our analysis focuses only on judges serving in the three main tiers of the federal court system<\/a>: the 91 district courts and 13 appeals courts governed by Article III of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court. It excludes judges appointed to certain specialized courts, such as the U.S. Court of International Trade, and appointees to non-Article III territorial courts<\/a> in Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This analysis counts judges once under each president\u2019s total, even if they were appointed to multiple positions. For example, President Joe Biden appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to an appeals court in 2021 and elevated her to the Supreme Court a year later. Biden\u2019s total counts Jackson only once.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Since returning to the White House in 2025, Trump has appointed 55 judges to the federal judiciary. That\u2019s among the lowest pre-midterm totals of any presidential term since Jimmy Carter.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Trump has appointed fewer judges this term than many other presidents leading into midterms<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
Federal judges appointed by each president through Oct. 15 of their second year in office<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n
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Note: Excludes judges appointed to certain specialized or territorial courts. Judges confirmed to multiple positions, such as those first appointed to a district court and later elevated to an appeals court, are counted separately for each position, but only once in each president’s total. Judges are counted as appointed if they were confirmed by the Senate on or before Oct. 15 of the president’s second year in office.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
Source: Pew Research Center analysis of Federal Judicial Center data.<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
PEW RESEARCH CENTER<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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Share this chart<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t