Today's Recorder has The 9th Circuit's En Banc Review Process Foretells a Conservative Power Shift -- In the last four years, President Donald Trump has managed to stack the Ninth Circuit with 10 appointees, but Trump’s judicial legacy also can be found in which jurists are dissenting to en banc rehearing denials.
Federal court scholar Arthur Hellman of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says these dissents largely hail from the conservative faction of the court. From January 2018 through October 2020, judges have dissented 31 times—two of which were identical dissents in companion cases. Only three of the 31 dissents were entirely or primarily from judges appointed by Democratic presidents.
“It tells us if President Trump is reelected and appoints a few more judges to the Ninth Circuit, then we will see a shift in the ideological direction of the court,” he said. “I don’t think that has happened up to this point.”
The Democrats still have their 16-13 majority on the court, and most of the time, that means the conservatives will lose the en banc votes, he said. But if Trump appoints more conservative judges, that could change.
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