Trump's election sparks fight over judicial retirements, new judgeships

26/12/2024 6:08

Three federal judges appointed by Democrats have changed their retirement plans ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House, with a fourth being warned on the Senate floor not to follow suit, The Washington Post has reported.

"It is rare in the federal court system for judges to retract declarations of senior status, a form of semi-retirement that creates a vacancy on the court," noted the report.

"Key Republicans have sharply criticized the decisions, which ensure that Trump, who pushed the courts substantially to the right during his first term in office, will not immediately get the chance to name successors for those judicial seats," it said.

Legal experts see the judges' actions as part of the broader political jockeying over a federal court system whose judges have lifetime appointments and whose rulings can shape policy over multiple administrations, according to the report.

Senate Democrats raced to confirm as many nominees of President Joe Biden as possible after the election, knowing that they would not be confirmed once a Republican-majority Senate is sworn in early next year, and that Trump will soon begin making his own nominations, it added.