Obama appointments already pulling appeals courts to the left
By Shannon Bream
Published August 31, 2016
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016...s-to-left.html
Majority of appeals courts now Democratic after Obama tenure
President Obama may be struggling to tilt the balance of the Supreme Court – but that doesn't mean he hasn't already made his mark on the bench.
The president, over the course of his two terms, has appointed hundreds of justices to the lower federal courts, leading to a majority of appeals courts now dominated by Democratic picks. While those nomination battles aren't nearly as high-profile as they are for the high court, the impact of the appointments is just as pronounced.
"It's often overlooked, but nominees to the lower courts ... are often one of the most important legacies a president leaves behind," said Elizabeth Wydra, president of the Constitutional Accountability Center.
The Fourth Circuit, which sits just one level below the Supreme Court and is headquartered in Richmond, Va., is a
prime example.
Previously viewed as one of the most conservative appellate courts in the country, it has drifted significantly to the left, with Democratic appointees now outnumbering their Republican counterparts two-to-one.
That circuit not only recently struck down North Carolina's voter ID law, but also ruled in favor of a transgender student seeking to use high school bathroom facilities matching the student's gender identity rather than biological gender.
The tilt on the federal appeals courts – particularly as the Supreme Court, which takes relatively few cases as it is, remains split 4-4 – is a trend that worries conservatives.
"The Supreme Court takes very few cases, there's not an opportunity to correct every error made --
and when you have activist judges at the lower levels of the federal judiciary, that can have a damaging effect on [the] American system and rule of law," said Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director at the Judicial Crisis Network.
The president has successfully seated a total of 329 federal judges during his two terms – all of them,
lifetime appointments.
When Obama took office,
only three appellate courts had more Democrat-appointed judges than Republican-appointed judges.
Now,
nine of the 13 circuits do...