# Federal Judges Hub The **people on the bench** — the officeholder layer of the judiciary. For the courts as institutions see [[Judiciary]], [[Supreme Court of the United States]], [[United States Courts of Appeals]], and [[United States District Courts]]; for the appointments machine that produces them, see [[Federalist Society]], [[Leonard Leo]], and the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]]. Records live in `/People/` (tag `judge` or `supreme-court`). This roster is organized around the KB's judiciary thesis: a branch **captured through legitimate means** at the top, deployed through **forum-shopped trial judges** in the middle, and **contested case-by-case** as the courts become the main check on the second-term executive. ## The Supreme Court bench (6–3) Three of the six conservatives were appointed by [[Donald Trump]], cementing the supermajority that decided Dobbs and, in **Trump v. CASA (June 2025)**, sharply curtailed nationwide injunctions — the administration's counter to the wave of district-court orders below. | Justice | Appointed by | Wing | |---|---|---| | [[John Roberts]] (Chief) | G.W. Bush (2005) | Conservative | | [[Clarence Thomas]] | G.H.W. Bush (1991) | Conservative | | [[Samuel Alito]] | G.W. Bush (2006) | Conservative | | [[Neil Gorsuch]] | Trump (2017) | Conservative | | [[Brett Kavanaugh]] | Trump (2018) | Conservative | | [[Amy Coney Barrett]] | Trump (2020) | Conservative | | [[Sonia Sotomayor]] | Obama (2009) | Liberal | | [[Elena Kagan]] | Obama (2010) | Liberal | | [[Ketanji Brown Jackson]] | Biden (2022) | Liberal | ## Lower court — movement instruments Conservative trial and appellate judges who function as the deployment end of the project. The trial judges below sit in single-judge or small divisions that enable **forum-shopping**: filing where the outcome is near-guaranteed. | Judge | Court | Note | |---|---|---| | [[Matthew Kacsmaryk]] | N.D. Texas (Amarillo) | Mifepristone ruling; the forum-shopping archetype | | [[Reed O'Connor]] | N.D. Texas (Fort Worth) | Declared the ACA unconstitutional (reversed) | | [[Terry Doughty]] | W.D. Louisiana | Missouri v. Biden social-media injunction | | [[Aileen Cannon]] | S.D. Florida | Dismissed the Mar-a-Lago documents case | | [[James Ho]] | 5th Circuit | Firebrand concurrences; SCOTUS shortlist | | [[Andrew Oldham]] | 5th Circuit | Administrative-state curbs; SCOTUS shortlist | ## Lower court — checking the administration The judges hearing the 2025–2026 wave of suits against executive actions — the front line of whether court orders are obeyed. | Judge | Court | Note | |---|---|---| | [[James Boasberg]] | D.D.C. (Chief) | [[Alien Enemies Act]] flights; probable-cause contempt finding | | [[Beryl Howell]] | D.D.C. | Struck down the [[Perkins Coie]] retaliation order | | [[Colleen Kollar-Kotelly]] | D.D.C. | Enjoined the elections executive order | | [[John McConnell]] | D.R.I. (Chief) | Ordered release of frozen federal grants | | [[Tanya Chutkan]] | D.D.C. | Presided over the federal Jan 6 case against Trump | ## State trial judges in Trump cases | Judge | Court | Note | |---|---|---| | [[Juan Merchan]] | NY Supreme Court (NY County) | The 34-count hush-money conviction | | [[Arthur Engoron]] | NY Supreme Court (NY County) | The $450M+ civil fraud judgment ([[Letitia James]] case) | ## Related - [[Judiciary]] — the branch as institution - [[Supreme Court of the United States]] · [[United States Courts of Appeals]] · [[United States District Courts]] - [[How a Nominee Becomes a Federal Judge]] — how everyone on this page got here, and why the pipeline slowed to a stop in 2026 with the appellate bench full - [[Federalist Society]] · [[Leonard Leo]] · [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] — the appointments pipeline - [[Senior Status]] — the door most of these seats opened through - [[Unitary Executive Theory]] · [[Supreme Court Rulings Hub]]