Catholic Social Science Review

Volume 26, 2021

Thomas F. X. Varacalli
Pages 117-123

The Legacy of Trump’s Judicial Appointments

It is too early to know if the judicial appointments of President Donald J. Trump will be an enduring legacy of his presidency because the Biden-Harris administration may have several opportunities to roll back his achievements. Still, Trump’s election in 2016 stymied the Left’s hope of a progressive Supreme Court. Trump has remodeled the Supreme Court into an originalist court. His Supreme Court appointments – Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett – have defended religious liberty claims repeatedly. Thus, if the Democrats are not able to pack the Court, Trump’s one-term presidency may have produced the most important cohort of judges in a generation.