. . . judicial nominees.
[Last] week, the Senate confirmed Justice Don Willett and James Ho to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Leonard Grasz to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. These three were the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth circuit nominee confirmed this year, setting a record for the number of appellate nominees confirmed during a President's first year (in addition to the confirmation of Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court).
It is not simply the number of appellate judges confirmed, but the caliber. Trump's appellate nominees have been . . .
. . . impressive, and compare favorably in terms of intellect and qualifications with those of any modern President. Among other things, they include a surprising number of legal academics, including newly confirmed judges Amy Coney Barrett (7th Circuit), Stephanos Bibas (3rd Circuit), and Joan Larsen (Sixth Circuit), and pending [nominee] David Stras (8th Circuit). Like the Reagan Administration, the Trump White House appears interested in naming judges who can help provide intellectual leadership on their respective courts -- and that's precisely what they have been doing.
(Jonathan H. Adler, "Trump's Record on Judges: Recent focus on a few failed trial court nominations obscures impressive record of stellar nominees for appellate courts," opiniontimes.com, December 19, 2017)
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