FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media after the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to the power of federal judges, in the Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington D.C., June 27, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo
President Donald Trump has managed to appoint judges to top courts that are now voting overwhelmingly to support his actions in office, whether or not they're legal.
The New York Times reported Sunday that a review of the 2025 court records shows that appellate judges are voting 92 percent of the time in favor of Trump and his policies.
They have reversed lower court rulings while "gradually eroding a perception early last year that the legal system was thwarting his efforts to amass presidential power," the report said.
The Times recalled Trump's attack on "Obama judges" in 2018 and Chief Justice John Roberts' response, “we do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.”
The data suggests otherwise. The Times calculated every ruling from Jan. 20 to Dec. 31, looking at more than 500 orders issued across 900 cases.
In the 13 appellate courts, there are now Trump judges and they've allowed his policies to go through 133 times in the past year. Only 12 times has a Trump judge voted down a Trump policy. It far outpaces other GOP presidents.
Meanwhile, a 2013 decision that federal judicial posts can't be filibustered, Trump has been given a pass from his Senate allies to install anyone he wants. In Trump's first term, they eliminated the so-called "blue slip" for appellate judges. It's a practice that allows senators of a specific state to block nominees to their courts if they don't like them nominee. Trump wants to end the policy for all judges.
In a recent lecture, Harvard law Professor Jack Goldsmith said Trump “is trying to change the nature of the presidency, and to alter constitutional understandings more broadly."
The Times looked specifically at Judges Gregory G. Katsas, Neomi Rao, and Justin R. Walker in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The three judges have voted 75 times in favor of the Trump administration. There were three rulings against. It's a little more than half of the pro-Trump votes from his appointees.