While the crowning achievement of the year was clearly the confirmation of Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, it is worth celebrating the fact that the Senate confirmed 12 circuit court judges this year—the largest number of appellate judges confirmed during the first year of any president in history (beating out John Kennedy and Richard Nixon by one).
While the Supreme Court only hears about 70 cases per year, the federal appellate courts consider roughly 50,000 cases per year. In a very real way, therefore, the buck often stops at the lower appellate courts when it comes to deciding important legal issues.
The White House made filling these crucial appellate vacancies a priority, and that strategy has paid off in spades. The intellect and overall caliber of each of the confirmed appellate judges—Stephanos Bibas (3rd Circuit), Jim Ho (5th Circuit), Don Willett (5th Circuit), Amul Thapar (6th...
