Trump Likely to Reshape the Federal Courts

It's not just the shape of the U.S. Supreme Court's jurisprudence that President-Elect Donald Trump will get to shape. The Economist reports that he will be able to appoint lawyers to 96 judgeships in district courts and 16 on the nation’s circuit courts. Russell Wheeler of the Brookings Institution projects that Trump appointments will lead to half of district-court seats being held by Republican appointees.

This is important because "the courts are Democrats’ last refuge in a political system where both houses of Congress, the White House, 32 statehouses and 33 governorships lie in Republican hands," The Economist reports.