Published January 23, 2025
With Donald Trump back in the White House, those who follow judicial appointments will turn a keen eye to the federal judges who are eligible to retire and did not do so under Joe Biden. First among these, of course, are the older Supreme Court justices, but there are also 68 circuit judges and over 140 district judges who are either eligible to retire or will be by the end of the second Trump administration. How, then, should these judges approach this opportunity to lock in their legacies and that of a conservative judiciary?
The judicial situation today generally looks different from that of eight years ago, when Mitch McConnell ground judicial nominations to a halt for the 114th Congress and gifted President Trump a Supreme Court vacancy, 17 appellate vacancies, and 86 district vacancies. Going into the second Trump administration, by contrast, there are only four (this may go down to three) circuit and 41 district vacancies. Trump’s judicial agenda will depend largely on what sitting judges choose to do with their retirements.
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Michael A. Fragoso is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in the Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture Program, where he writes and speaks on issues relating to the law, the federal judiciary, and Congress. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy: Per Curiam, and elsewhere.
