Democratic-led states could face tougher legal pathway to challenge...

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : Trump transformed those appeals courts as well by appointing 54 appellate judges.
52% : States prepare legal fight on issues like immigration, environment and healthcare*Trump reshaped federal judiciary during first term*Supreme Court has moved to the right*9th Circuit appeals court not as liberal as beforeBy Nate RaymondDec 17 (Reuters) - Democratic-led states that have vowed to challenge President-elect Donald Trump's initiatives will face a tough legal landscape after his first-term appointments reshaped the judiciary, not only giving the U.S. Supreme Court a conservative supermajority but also diluting liberal judges' influence on a key appeals court that often stymied his agenda.
52% : But the lawsuits will proceed through a federal judiciary remade by Trump during his first four years in office by his near-record 234 judicial appointments, representing about a quarter of all judges, including three U.S. Supreme Court justices that gave it a 6-3 conservative supermajority.
45% : "President Trump transformed the once-out-of-whack, liberal 9th Circuit," said Mike Davis, a Trump ally at the advocacy group the Article III Project.
42% : But Trump in the meantime gained the chance to name 10 conservative judges to the 9th Circuit, which when he took office in 2017 had 18 Democratic appointees, seven Republican appointees and four vacancies.
33% : Trump's Supreme Court appointees have moved it dramatically rightward, issuing rulings that have overturned the nationwide right to abortion, expanded gun rights and limited the authority of government regulators.
31% : "Asked for comment on the potential litigation, Trump transition team spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt in a statement said Trump will serve all Americans, even those who did not vote for him, and "will unify the country through success.
21% : "Trump in 2018 described the 9th Circuit as a "disgrace" as it issued a series of decisions rejecting key parts of his first-term agenda, including against his travel ban from six Muslim-majority countries and his bid to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protects immigrants brought into the country illegally as children from deportation.
16% : Democratic Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown recently said he was seeking additional funding for federal litigation to prepare for lawsuits whenever "the rights of Marylanders are being impaired," such as if the Trump administration seeks to restrict or ban abortion nationwide.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.