Tipsheet

President Trump Reaches a Milestone: Confirming Judge 100 to the Federal Bench

During his first term in office, President Trump has already solidified his legacy of remaking the courts and appointing conservative, constitutional loyalists to the federal bench. 

Today, Rodolfo Armando Ruiz became the 100th judge to be confirmed under President Trump's tenure in the White House.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell deserves much of the credit for making this happen and plans to keep the process moving. In March, he moved to change Senate rules to help streamline nominees being blocked by Democrats. From Roll Call

The Senate voted last week to change the body's debate rules and further speed up the confirmation of the president's picks for district court judges.

Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cited what he called the Democrats’ “systematic obstruction” of the president's nominees as the reason for the change. Previously, district court nominees had taken a backseat as Senate Republicans pushed to get President Donald Trump’s circuit court picks through.

Trump has placed 53 district court judges on the bench since taking office, though none this Congress until the rule change. Those nominees had waited, on average, just over seven months to be confirmed — longer than all but one Congress since Ronald Reagan took office. (The exception was the final two years of Barack Obama’s presidency when his 18 confirmed district court picks waited an average of nearly nine months for the McConnell-led Senate to let them through.)