Elections Change Courts: Below you will see a comparison of how eight years of a presidency affect the makeup of the federal courts. Because the federal judges are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, a President and a Senate of the same party can make significant changes in the courts in one direction or another. Right now, President Trump is confirming more federal judges than past presidents have done and is moving the Courts back in a Constitutional direction! President Trump has now appointed 200 judges to the federal courts, including two Supreme Court Justices. He has already flipped some of the Circuit Courts to a Republican-appointed majority, and one in four of the Appeals Court judges are Trump appointees.
When President George W. Bush left office after eight years in office, this map shows that most of the federal circuit courts had a majority of Republican-appointed judges.
When President Obama left office, on the other hand, the majority had shifted, as this map shows.
Here is the same comparison using bar ratios:
Court Ratio 2009 .
Court Ratio 2016
Elections Affect Legislation : This document shows that progress is made in one direction or another with legislation related to abortion when both houses of Congress and the Presidency are in the control of the same party.
