Since the start of the 2016 election, voters were fixated on one crucial issue: who will replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia?
During the final weeks of the campaign, we heard Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton talk about their vision for the Supreme Court. While the direction the Supreme Court takes is important for America’s future, there’s one area of the court system that has been neglected, the lower courts.
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Currently, there are 104 vacancies – not including Scalia’s seat – across the nation that are broken down into the following:
-Court of Appeals: 13
-District Courts (including territorial courts): 83
-Court of International Trade: 2
-Court of Federal Claims: 6
When President-Elect Donald Trump takes office, he will have the necessary task of filling these vacancies. While Scalia’s replacement may seem like the most important part of the court system, the makeup of the lower courts are more consequential than the new SCOTUS nominee.
Every year around 7,000-to-8,000 cases are appealed to the Supreme Court, but only about 80 of them are heard. That means that 88 percent of cases are left to the lower courts to decide.
Why is this important?
Those who are selected to sit on the Supreme Court work their way up the system. Almost every one of them sat on a court of appeals or a district court before becoming a member of SCOTUS.
Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas were all judges for the District of Columbia’s Court of Appeals.
Associate Justice Stephen Breyer was the Chief Judge of the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor was a judge on the Second Circuit, and Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy was a judge for the Ninth Circuit.
The only sitting Supreme Court justice who was not a member of an appeals court before becoming a justice is Associate Justice Elena Kagan, who was the 45th United States Solicitor General.
Why Millennials Should Care
While most are concerned about who fills Scalia’s vacancy, conservatives should be more anxious about who fills those 104 vacancies. Those judges are the future. They’re the ones who will be considered to take over current Supreme Court seats. If Trump packs the appellate and district courts with conservative judges, he can – and will – ensure that the Supreme Court will be conservative for years to come.
These judges have the ability to uphold our Constitutional rights at a time when our rights, particularly the Second Amendment, are coming under fire from progressives.
