President Donald Trump has appointed fewer federal judges so far in his second term than at the same point in his first term. In fact, Trump’s pace of judicial appointments trails that of most other recent presidents, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Judicial Center.

The analysis comes ahead of midterm elections that will decide control of the U.S. Senate. If Democrats take control of the chamber from Republicans in November, they could further slow Trump’s judicial appointments. Judges are an important part of every president’s legacy because they have lifetime appointments, so they can serve long after the president who appointed them leaves office.

This analysis looks at the pace of President Donald Trump’s judicial appointments almost halfway through his second term and how it compares to the pace of his recent predecessors at the same point in their terms.

Pew Research Center does research to inform the public, journalists and decision-makers. This analysis builds on our previous work about presidents’ judicial appointments. We also study other presidential actions, such as executive orders.

We used the Federal Judicial Center’s Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges to determine how many judges each recent president had appointed through Oct. 15 of the second year of their term. The Federal Judicial Center is the research and education arm of the federal judiciary.

We counted judges as “appointed” if the Senate voted to confirm them on or before the Oct. 15 cutoff for this analysis.

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