List of presidents of the United States by judicial appointments
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As the first president, George Washington appointed the entire federal judiciary. His record of eleven Supreme Court appointments still stands.Ronald Reagan appointed 383 federal judges, more than any other president.
Following is a list indicating the number of Article IIIfederal judicial appointments made by each president of the United States. The number of judicial offices has risen significantly from the time when Washington's 39 appointments were sufficient to maintain the entire federal judiciary for eight years. As of January 2020, there are 874 authorized Article III judgeships – 9 on the Supreme Court, 179 on the courts of appeals, 677 for the district courts including 10 temporary judgeships, and 9 on the United States Court of International Trade.[1]
To date, Ronald Reagan has appointed the largest number of federal judges, with 383, followed closely by Bill Clinton with 378. Jimmy Carter has appointed the most federal judges in a single term, with 262, followed by Joe Biden, with 235.[2]William Henry Harrison, who died 31 days after his inauguration, is the only president to have appointed no federal judges.
How appointments are counted
In many instances, the number of judgeships appointed is greater than the number of people appointed as judges, because a president may appoint the same person as a judge to different courts over the course of their presidency. For example, Donald Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett to the Seventh Circuit, and later appointed her to the Supreme Court. There are also instances in which an individual is appointed to multiple district courts in a single state. For example, Donald Trump appointed John F. Heil III to the Eastern, Northern, and Western Districts of Oklahoma.
In some rare instances, a federal judge resigns their judgeship, and is later reappointed to a federal judgeship – possibly even to the same court – by a different president. A noted example of this is that of Charles Evans Hughes, who resigned from the United States Supreme Court to run for president against Woodrow Wilson, and was later returned to the court as Chief Justice of the United States by Herbert Hoover. Another rare situation occurs where a court that has not been specifically designated as an Article III court is transformed into an Article III court. This occurred in 1958 when the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals was changed from an Article I court to an Article III court. In that case, judges who were not initially appointed to an Article III court may become Article III judges without being specifically appointed by the sitting president, or approved by the sitting Senate. However, judges on such bodies have previously been appointed to Article I courts by the president, and those appointments have been approved by the Senate, which must also vote in favor of the legislation that would change the status of such judges. Appointments to Article I courts are not counted in each president's total number of appointments.
The list does not include nominees who were rejected by Congress before having served, but does include the twenty-two recess appointments who were not confirmed by the Senate after having served for some period. The most famous instance of such a post-appointment rejection is that of George Washington's recess appointment of John Rutledge as Chief Justice during a congressional recess in July, 1795. Because of Rutledge's political views and occasional mental illness, the Senate rejected his nomination in December of that year, and Rutledge subsequently attempted suicide and then resigned.
In the United States, a recess appointment is an appointment by the president of a federal official when the U.S. Senate is in recess. Under the U.S. Constitution's Appointments Clause, the president is empowered to nominate, and with the advice and consent (confirmation) of the Senate, make appointments to high-level policy-making positions in federal departments, agencies, boards, and commissions, as well as to the federal judiciary. A recess appointment under Article II, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution is an alternative method of appointing officials that allows the temporary filling of offices during periods when the Senate is not in session. It was anticipated that the Senate would be away for months at a time, so the ability to fill vacancies in important positions when the Senate is in recess and unavailable to provide advice and consent was deemed essential to maintain government function, as described by Alexander Hamilton in No. 67 of The Federalist Papers.
The appointment of federal judges for United States federal courts is done via nomination by the President of the United States and confirmation by the United States Senate. The tables below provide the composition of all Article III courts which include the Supreme Court and the Courts of Appeals at the end of each four year presidential term, as well as the current compositions of the District Courts and the Court of International Trade, categorizing the judges by the presidential term during which they were first appointed to their seats.
In the history of the United States, there have been approximately 32 unsuccessful recess appointments to United States federal courts. 22 individuals have been appointed to a United States federal court through a recess appointment who were thereafter rejected by the United States Senate when their name was formally submitted in nomination, either by a vote rejecting the nominee, or by the failure of the Senate to act on the nomination. These individuals served as federal judges, having full authority to hold office and issue rulings, until their rejection by the Senate. Five individuals were appointed but resigned either before the Senate voted on their nomination, or before a formal nomination was even submitted. Another five individuals were appointed but never assumed the office.
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