Analysis: Trump appellate picks voted 133-12 to allow his policies in 2025

A New York Times analysis found that appellate judges President Trump appointed in his first term voted 133 times to allow his administration’s policies to take effect and 12 times against them in 2025, a record the paper said represented 92 percent of their total votes. The Times tracked more than 500 orders across roughly 900 cases challenging Mr.

Trump’s second-term agenda from Jan. 20 to Dec. 31, 2025. The analysis said the president’s appellate appointees sided with his administration across administrative stays (97 percent), stays pending appeal (88 percent) and final merits rulings (100 percent), and that they outpaced his district-court appointees, who ruled for him 55 percent of the time.

The paper cited specific effects of those rulings, saying the judges allowed deployment of the National Guard over local objections, delayed an inquiry into flights carrying Venezuelan immigrants to a prison in El Salvador and approved withholding millions in federal education funds.

It also highlighted structural changes and personnel choices the Times and experts said may help explain the record: 2013 and 2017 Senate rule changes, Mr. Trump’s selection of many young originalist nominees, and the outsized role of three Trump appointees on the D.C. Circuit—Judges Gregory G.

Key Topics

Politics, Donald Trump, D.c. Circuit, Gregory G. Katsas, Neomi Rao, Justin R. Walker