Trump and the Federal Judiciary

WYPR - 88.1 FM Baltimore | By Sheilah Kast,

Published February 6, 2017 at 10:12 AM EST

All eyes have turned to the Supreme Court in the aftermath of President Trump’s nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. But while Gorsuch may be the most important judge Trump will nominate, he is far from the only one. The president also appoints federal appeals court and district court judges. President Trump comes into office with over 100 vacancies waiting to be filled. What is the state of the federal judiciary? How is it likely to change under Trump?

Maya Sen, a political scientist and an assistant professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, joins us along with Mark Graber, Regents Professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and a leading scholar on constitutional law and politics.

Sheilah Kast

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am. Originally, she hostedWYPR's Dupont-Columbia University award-winning Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast from 2006 - October2015. She began her career at The Washington Star, where she covered the Maryland and Virginia legislatures, utilities, energy and taxes, as well as financial and banking regulation. She learned the craft of broadcasting at ABC News; as a Washington correspondent for fifteen years, she covered the White House, Congress, and the 1991 Moscow coup that signaled the end of the Soviet empire. Sheilahhas been a substitute host on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday and The DianeRehmShow. She has launched and hosted two weekly interview shows on public TV, one about business and one about challenges facing older people.

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Andrea Appleton

Andrea Appleton is a producer for Midday. She comes to WYPR with years of experience as a freelance journalist filing stories for newspapers, magazines, and public radio. She has reported on topics ranging from bull riding to bionic fish, with an emphasis on science. She is also former senior editor of the Baltimore City Paper, and a graduate of the Columbia University School of Journalism.

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