Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is widely credited with holding the seat for President Donald Trump’s first Supreme Court appointee and shepherding through his second. But McConnell’s crowning achievement may extend past the Supreme Court.
When he took office, Trump had more than 100 vacancies to fill in the lower courts, including 17 in the U.S. courts of appeals — all of them lifetime appointments. The Supreme Court hears around 80 cases a year, while the courts of appeals handle tens of thousands of cases annually — often making them the last word in most cases that impact the lives of Americans.
“They are the ones that judge all your disputes,” Trump said in a March 2018 speech. “They judge on what’s fair on the environment and what’s not fair.” Continue reading.