Trump could reshape judiciary with 300 judge appointments, analysis shows

Donald Trump is poised to reshape the US judiciary over the next four years through hundreds of potential appointments of rightwing judges, a progressive advocacy group has warned.

The analysis by Demand Justice comes with the courts already facing extraordinary pressure. The Trump administration has suffered several legal setbacks and was accused of violating a judge’s order by deporting about 250 Venezuelan alleged gang members to El Salvador.

Trump, a Republican, appointed 226 judges to the federal courts during his first term as president. The total was narrowly eclipsed by his successor, the Democrat Joe Biden, with 228 including record numbers of women and people of colour.

But Demand Justice shared data with the Guardian identifying more than 300 potential judicial appointment opportunities for Trump to radically shift the balance of the courts back in his favour.

This figure includes 54 existing and known future judicial vacancies across the country that are currently without a nominee.

Then there are federal judges with lifetime appointments who can opt for “senior status” upon meeting certain age and service requirements. This allows them to reduce their workload while continuing to receive their full salary. If a judge takes senior status, it creates a new judicial vacancy that the current president can fill.

Demand Justice identified nearly 250 judges – more than a quarter of all active judges – who will become eligible for senior status by the end of 2028. These include more than 60 on the powerful circuit courts. With the supreme court picking just a few cases to decide every year, it notes, circuit court judges often have the last word.

Demand Justice warns that Trump’s wave of judicial nominees would cement an extreme agenda through lifetime appointments of judges whose qualifications centre on their willingness to gut Medicaid, privatise social security, shred environmental protections, eliminate veterans’ benefits and demonstrate loyalty to the president.

Last week, for example, Trump lavished praise on Aileen Cannon, a judge in Florida who repeatedly ruled in his favour during a case in which he was accused of mishandling classified documents. “Actually, she was brilliant, she moved quickly,” he said in a highly unorthodox speech at the justice department. “She was the absolute model of what a judge should be, and she was strong and tough.”

Demand Justice is launching trackers to monitor existing judicial vacancies without nominees, all circuit and district court judges who are or will become eligible for senior status by 2028, and the appointing party of all active circuit court judges. It is building an interactive map detailing which party has appointed the most judges on each of the 13 federal courts of appeals and the federal district courts below them.

But the threat comes amid concerns that the Democratic party has not yet found a coherent strategy to combat Trump and his assault on constitutional guardrails. The party reached an all-time low in popularity in the latest national NBC News poll, with just over a quarter of registered voters saying they have positive views of the party.

Maggie Jo Buchanan, interim executive director of Demand Justice, said: “While the Trump administration and its Republican enablers in Congress bear the overwhelming responsibility for this unfolding constitutional crisis, Demand Justice will continue to firmly assert that every elected official is obligated to protect our judiciary from and safeguard our democracy against a rightwing takeover.

“The American people deserve courageous leaders who will stand up and fight for our fundamental values – even when they’re in the minority and the odds are stacked against them. Silence and half-measures in response to this brazen assault on our democratic institutions are unacceptable. The time for bold, unwavering action is now.”