President Trump is re-shaping the federal judiciary, beginning the "rightward shift" that liberals fear. Bloomberg: Only President Bill Clinton had more initial vacancies, with 111. By contrast, Obama found only 54 lower-court vacancies when he took office, while President George W. Bush had 84. Trump's starting batch of 107 represents 12 percent of all 890 federal judicial positions. Those vacancies, and the ones to come as more judges retire (the number has already jumped to 136 in the six months since inauguration) offer Trump the chance to sculpt the courts to his liking. Now that the filibuster has been abolished for judicial nominations, the only obstacle to re-populating the federal bench with judges who believe in following what the law actually says is the arcane Senate practice of "blue slips," under which a senator from the judicial nominee's state can torpedo a nomination by...(Read Full Post)