Democrats Set to Take Senate in January, Limiting Trump's Ability to Confirm Judges

Democrats are set to take control of the Senate in January after Tuesday's midterm elections, ending Republicans' ability to confirm President Donald Trump's judicial nominees without Democratic support. Democrats are projected to hold at least 54 seats, and possibly 56 if two races still being counted in Alaska and Mississippi go their way. Confirming a judge takes a simple majority of senators present, or 51 votes if all 100 are there. Nearly halfway through his second term, Trump has had 56 federal judicial nominees confirmed and has 22 still pending. In his first term he got 234 federal judges confirmed, including three Supreme Court justices, a total only exceeded by Joe Biden, who finished his term with 235 judges and one Supreme Court justice. Trump now faces a lame-duck period of about eight weeks to push through outstanding nominees before Republicans lose the majority. After that, he would need Democratic sign-off for any Supreme Court nominee if a vacancy opened. Justice Samuel Alito is 76 and Justice Clarence Thomas is 78.

Left-leaning HuffPost frames the result as the end of Trump's effort to remake the courts, saying Republican senators had rubber-stamped nominees who, under oath, would not say Trump lost the 2020 election or incited the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack. It adds that some Democrats, especially those eyeing 2028 presidential runs, may refuse to back his picks anyway. Right-leaning Washington Examiner leads with the narrowing window and the numbers: his first-term record, Biden's slightly higher total, the 56 confirmed and 22 pending, and the lame-duck race. It leaves out the nominees' answers on 2020 and Jan. 6. Both agree on the 54-seat projection and the hurdle for any Supreme Court seat. Reason, an independent outlet, takes a distinct angle: a commentary on whether Alito and Thomas can outlast a Democratic Senate, noting a Republican White House and Senate together may not be possible until 2032.