The return of President-elect Donald Trump to the Oval Office gives him the unique opportunity to reshape a federal judiciary that has already been forever changed by his first term in office, while opening the doors to a new team of experts ready to help him confirm more judges.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump had already begun teasing a roster of possible Supreme Court nominees by May of that year, drafted in part with the help of then-Federalist Society Vice President Leonard Leo, in the wake of a historic opportunity to appoint the successor to the late Antonin Scalia.