Key facts
- Twenty-three judicial nominees remain pending in the Senate, including Daniel Domenico, set for a Monday vote.
- Senators Thom Tillis and John Cornyn, both leaving office, can deny nominees the committee votes needed to advance.
- Tillis is backing Senator Alan Armstrong's opposition to Oklahoma nominee Zach West, leaving West short of committee votes.
- Cornyn has declined to commit to supporting T. Elliot Gaiser, Trump's nominee for a federal judgeship in Dallas.
- A White House official said it expects all judicial nominees pending in the Senate to be confirmed this year.
- Roughly one-third of active judges are now Trump appointees, Reuters reported.
A last-minute effort by US President Donald Trump to install as many judges as possible before Democrats take control of the US Senate is running into resistance from some fellow Republicans, Reuters reported on November 15, 2026.
Until recently, Senate Republicans had routinely approved Trump's nominees for lifetime seats on district and appeals courts during his second term, confirming 57 so far. As the White House and Senate Republican leaders press ahead with judicial nominees during the lame-duck session, a handful of Republicans have blocked or cast doubt on three nominees selected for their home states.
Senators traditionally help choose judges for vacancies in their states. Trial court nominees are especially vulnerable because, under Senate custom, home-state senators can block them by withholding a blue slip, a form indicating support to the Senate Judiciary Committee. While generally honoring that tradition, the White House has sometimes picked conservatives over the objections of Republican senators.
"We put up a lot of really qualified candidates that we sent to the White House, and they basically ignored that and just put through their one," Senator Alan Armstrong, an Oklahoma Republican, said.
Two outgoing Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, can deny such nominees the votes needed to advance. The White House on Tuesday withdrew US District Judge Lee Rudofsky's nomination to the St. Louis-based 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals and replaced him with Arkansas Supreme Court Justice J. Cody Hiland after Senators John Boozman and Tom Cotton of Arkansas opposed Rudofsky.
Tillis told reporters on Thursday that the White House has at times essentially told senators, "This is our guy, I hope you'll get on board." He added: "That's not how it works here. They should expect they're going to get this response." A White House official said in a statement: "We expect all judicial nominees pending in the Senate to be confirmed this year."
Trump made 234 judicial appointments during his first term from 2017 to 2021, including three members of the Supreme Court's current 6-3 conservative majority. Roughly one-third of active judges are now Trump appointees, Reuters reported.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that judicial confirmations were a top priority while Republicans retain control of the chamber. The Senate confirmed its first judicial nominee of the lame-duck session on Thursday. Twenty-three nominees remain pending, including Colorado-based US District Judge Daniel Domenico, whose nomination to the Denver-based 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals is set for a Monday vote.
Cornyn has declined to commit to supporting T. Elliot Gaiser, Trump's nominee for a federal judgeship in Dallas. Gaiser, who is from Ohio, was selected without the usual senator-driven screening process in Texas. Without a blue slip from Cornyn, Gaiser cannot appear at a Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Tillis is backing Armstrong's opposition to Zach West, a lawyer in the Oklahoma attorney general's office. Armstrong initially returned a favorable blue slip for West but later withdrew his support. Tillis' backing leaves West without enough votes to clear the committee when it next decides whom to advance on Tuesday. Armstrong will leave the Senate on November 30 and be replaced by Senator-elect Kevin Hern.