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Speaker 1: Sometimes the president's greatest legacy is the judiciary he leaves behind.

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Speaker 1: When he was campaigning, now, President Donald Trump used the

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court in the judiciary as a way to convince

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Speaker 1: Republicans who were reluctant to support him. So the Democrats

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Speaker 1: would have an absolute free run. Probably you wouldn't even

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Speaker 1: campaign because it would be impossible to win. And what

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Speaker 1: does that mean. That means that automatically they are going

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Speaker 1: to appoint very, very very liberal judges. Trump has already

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Speaker 1: put conservative Justice Neil Gorsich on the Supreme Court, re

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Speaker 1: establishing the fine for conservative advantage. Now he's moving to

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Speaker 1: shift the federal, appellate and district courts to the right.

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Speaker 1: Joining me is Paul Barrett, editor for Bloomberg business Week,

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Speaker 1: who has written an article entitled Trump begins shifting courts

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Speaker 1: right ward, just as Republicans hoped. Paul, only one other president,

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Speaker 1: James Garfield in one, had a Supreme Court vacancy to

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Speaker 1: fill as soon as he took office, and Trump also

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Speaker 1: has a hundred and seven vacancies on try and appellate courts.

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Speaker 1: Why is that vacancy lists so high? Right, and the

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Speaker 1: number of openings has actually increased to a hundred and

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Speaker 1: thirty six since he took office. And a big part

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Speaker 1: of the reason why it's so high is the Republican

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Speaker 1: strategy under Senator Mitch McConnell of holding open those seats

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Speaker 1: not confirming UH President Obama's nominees. And that was UH

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Speaker 1: put into effect most dramatically with the Supreme Court opening. UH.

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Speaker 1: You had Justice Scalia who died unexpectedly in February of

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Speaker 1: UM and hit and that seat just stayed open even

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Speaker 1: though Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to fill it UM

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Speaker 1: and it was held open until President Trump took office.

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Speaker 1: When people think of presidential judicial appointments, they usually think

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Speaker 1: about the Supreme Court, but explain the importance of the

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Speaker 1: appellate and district court judges. Sure, there are eight hundred

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Speaker 1: and ninety slots, and the lower federal courts and the

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Speaker 1: district courts are the place where trials criminal and civil

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Speaker 1: take place, and the federal circuit courts are the appellate

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Speaker 1: courts where the losing party can can appeal. And from

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Speaker 1: the circuit courts, a small number of cases are filtered

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Speaker 1: up to the Supreme Courts, some seventy or seventy five

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Speaker 1: A year. So because the Supreme Court takes so few cases,

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Speaker 1: a lot of matters for for all practical purposes are

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Speaker 1: resolved in the lower courts. So if you have an

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Speaker 1: individual dispute um, that's likely where it's going to get resolved.

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Speaker 1: And even if you have a test case um where

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Speaker 1: there's some big question of law a foot, still it's

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Speaker 1: likely to be one of the courts of appeals that

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Speaker 1: has the final word because the Supreme Court, you know,

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Speaker 1: all likelihood will simply decline to review the case. Trump

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Speaker 1: outsourced the Supreme Court pick to two establishment conservative groups.

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Speaker 1: Is he doing the same with the other vacancies. Yes.

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Speaker 1: The Heritage Foundation in waw Shington and the Federalist Society,

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Speaker 1: which has chapters all over the country based at law

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Speaker 1: schools and elsewhere, are playing a significant role in advising

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Speaker 1: uh President Trump's White House staff, as they have played

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Speaker 1: that role for past Republican president So this is not

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Speaker 1: anything new. These outside groups basically are kind of recruitment vehicles. Um,

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Speaker 1: they're familiar with lawyers all over the country who might

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Speaker 1: not be immediately familiar to the White House. Liberal judicial

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Speaker 1: activists are concerned that Trump shaping the judiciary is going

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Speaker 1: to mean cutbacks, you know, going backward on hard for

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Speaker 1: rights and liberties. Can he accomplish that in four years?

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Speaker 1: He can, if if he moves aggressively to fill these

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Speaker 1: these open slots. And he's just beginning to do that now.

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Speaker 1: He's made fifteen nominations to the lower courts so far. UM.

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Speaker 1: If he moves quickly, he can begin to shift the

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Speaker 1: balance back towards the red and away from the blue. UM.

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Speaker 1: And UH, I think the liberal groups are uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: justified in their fear because UH, with advice from the

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Speaker 1: Federal Society and Herrihage Foundation, UH, the White House has

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Speaker 1: been choosing impressive uh, particularly courts of appeals UH nominees.

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Speaker 1: And these are people who in many cases have had

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Speaker 1: a scholarly background and then have served in lower court

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Speaker 1: or or or themselves law professors. And they're the kind

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Speaker 1: of people who will have influence if they get on

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Speaker 1: the court. I take it they're all very conservative. Is

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Speaker 1: there any chance that some of them will not get through? Well? Yes,

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Speaker 1: I mean in in any administration, there's usually at least

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Speaker 1: at the fringes. UM, some nominee judicial nominees who become

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Speaker 1: the focus of controversy and that is already true. Um

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Speaker 1: with the Trump nominees. Uh, there's a guy named Damien

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Speaker 1: Schiff and a Kentucky lawyer named John Bush, and both

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Speaker 1: of them, as it happens, were prolific bloggers in their

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Speaker 1: earlier life and gave expression to what I think it's

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Speaker 1: uh safe to say or some rather far right political views,

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Speaker 1: which is fine if you're just a blogger, but can

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Speaker 1: become embarrassing if you're up for confirmation. And I think

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Speaker 1: those two in particular, UM may find themselves with a

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Speaker 1: fight to get through the Senate. It's a very important topic,

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Speaker 1: a great article. Thanks as always for being here, Paul Barrett,

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Speaker 1: Editor for Bloomberg business Week,