Dems fight to Trump-proof the federal judiciary

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

56% : "I can't wait for President Trump to nominate some more judges -- to me that was one of his great legacies," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee.
54% : By comparison, Trump began his first term in 2017 with an astounding 112 vacancies and 15 future ones.
50% : Trump may, of course, have the most consequential last laugh at the Supreme Court.
49% : While cases can rise up to appeal courts and beyond, district courts tend to have the first say on challenges to federal policies.
46% : Senate Democrats, despite a narrow majority, have approved 235 of Biden's judicial picks, eclipsing the 234 judicial nominations Trump got through in his first term.
46% : Plus there are other large states that see a lot of openings, like Texas and Florida, where Trump will have two GOP senators to sign off on his preferred picks.
35% : Nominating replacements for either or both of those conservative justices would offer Trump the chance to further cement a decades-long conservative mark on the court.
31% : It deprives Trump of putting a bigger conservative stamp on the judiciary -- and Democrats will have leverage to continue fighting next year.
26% : And they're not the only justices on the retirement watch list; progressive groups launched an unsuccessful pressure campaign following Trump's win for liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor to step aside, wary the 70-year-old could create another opening for Trump to tilt the court further rightward.
24% : Trump could have come in with a slate of additional judicial openings to fill under a bipartisan deal struck this term, but it now looks unlikely.
18% : Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), a Judiciary member who's close to Trump, called it a "good deal.

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