U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominees to appellate and district courts are mostly white men, according to a recent report by the progressive judicial advocacy group the Alliance for Justice.
It has been one of the most prolific administrations in terms of judicial appointments in recent history, according to the White House. Among circuit courts, those which refer cases to the U.S. Court of Appeals, Trump has appointed about one in four federal judges.
Trump has said he selects judges based on their commitment to upholding the rule of law, but civil rights groups fear his Republican-appointed majorities on key judicial panels across the country will turn back the clock on issues ranging from birth control to separation of church and state in 2020.
According to the Federal Judicial Center, 185 Trump-appointed judges have been confirmed to the federal bench, including two Supreme Court justices, dozens of Circuit Court judges and more than 100 District Court judges.
According to Alliance for Justice, nearly 76 percent of them are
men, and more than 85 percent are white.
Notably, Trump appointed two white men, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, to the U.S. Supreme Court—cementing the conservative tilt of the country’s highest judiciary body. Since the president took office, the court has upheld partisan gerrymandering, certain types of discrimination based on sexuality and Trump’s travel ban on majority-Muslim countries.