Lame-Duck Republican Senate Must Confirm All 23 Pending Trump Judges Before Democrats Take Control
Source: "Trump judicial nominees must be confirmed before Schumer takes over | Fox News." November 7, 2026. www.foxnews.com
The Gist
Republicans are about to lose control of the Senate, so the author says they should rush through all 23 of Trump's pending judges before January, because Democrats will block them afterward. He argues these judges will serve for decades, and since Democrats did the same thing in 2024, they can't complain.
Conclusion
Outgoing Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Republicans must use every remaining day of the lame-duck session to confirm all 23 pending Trump judicial nominees (4 circuit, 19 district) before Democrats take control of the Senate on Jan. 3, 2027.
Premises
- Democrats, led by incoming Majority Leader Schumer, will take over the Senate in January 2027 and will block any appeals court confirmations and likely district court confirmations as well.
- Any seats left unfilled will be open for a Democratic president to fill if Democrats win the White House in 2028, which would put left-wing judges on the bench.
- Appellate courts are the most consequential federal courts because the Supreme Court takes only about 1% of petitions, making circuit courts the last stop for nearly all federal litigants.
- The pending nominees are highly qualified constitutionalists, and Chairman Grassley has already scheduled hearings, so only committee votes and floor confirmations remain.
- Democrats set the precedent by ramming through judges in the 2024 lame-duck session after losing the Senate majority, so they have no standing to complain about Republicans doing the same.
- Judges hold lifetime appointments and will shape the law for decades, so it matters who fills these seats.
Assumptions
- Confirming judges in a lame-duck session after an electoral loss is legitimate and not undermining the voters' recent choice.
- Democrats will win the presidency in 2028, or at least that the risk is great enough to justify rushing.
- The nominees' judicial philosophy (constitutionalist) is clearly superior to what a Democratic nominee would bring, and ideological outcomes matter more than process considerations.
- There is enough time and enough Republican unity to confirm all 23 nominees, including Rudofsky despite concerns from Arkansas senators.
- Schumer will in fact block nearly all confirmations; the blockade will be total or near-total.
- The 2024 Democratic lame-duck confirmations are a fair analogue to the current situation.