Trump's 'Superstar' Appellate Judges Have Voted 133 to 12 in His Favor

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Trump’s ‘Superstar’ Appellate Judges Have Voted 133 to 12 in His Favor

President Trump promised to fill the appeals courts with “my judges.” They have formed a nearly united phalanx to defend his agenda from legal challenges.

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Source: New York Times analysis of federal appeals court rulings in 2025.

Trump’s ‘Superstar’ Appellate Judges Have Voted 133 to 12 in His Favor - The New York Times

By Mattathias Schwartz and Emma Schartz Graphics by Alicia Parlapiano
Mattathias Schwartz covers the federal courts. Emma Schartz has spent months tracking lawsuits challenging Donald Trump’s agenda.
Jan. 11, 2026

President Trump has found a powerful but obscure bulwark in the appeals court judges he appointed during his first term. They have voted overwhelmingly in his favor when his administration’s actions have been challenged in court in his current term, a New York Times analysis of their 2025 records shows. ... Time and again, appellate judges chosen by Mr. Trump in his first term reversed rulings made by district court judges in his second, clearing the way for his policies and gradually eroding a perception early last year that the legal system was thwarting his efforts to amass presidential power.

When Mr. Trump criticized a ruling from a so-called “Obama judge” in 2018, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. responded that “we do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.”

But the data suggests that in the 13 appellate courts, there is increasingly such a thing as a Trump judge. The president’s appointees voted to allow his policies to take effect 133 times and voted against them only 12 times. Ninety-two percent of their total votes were in favor of the administration. That figure far outstrips support for Mr. Trump’s agenda from appeals court judges appointed by other Republican presidents, and from Mr. Trump’s appointees to the district courts.

The Times analyzed every judicial ruling on Mr. Trump’s second-term agenda, from Jan. 20 to Dec. 31 of last year, or more than 500 orders issued across 900 cases. About half of rulings at the appellate level were in Mr. Trump’s favor — better than his performance with the district courts, though worse than his record at the Supreme Court, where the rulings on his agenda have almost all been on a preliminary basis in response to emergency applications.

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Seamus Hughes contributed research.

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Alicia Parlapiano is a Times reporter covering government policy and politics, primarily using data and charts.

A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 11, 2026, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump’s ‘Superstar’ Judges Backed Him 133-12 in ’25 . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

[LymphocyteLover]

1. All MAGAts need to be excised from our government-- they are fascist sickos

[Kid Berwyn]

2. "My judges."

His co-conspirators.