President Donald Trump nominated three Supreme Court justices for appointment during his first term in the span of just three years. Most presidents fill one, occasionally two, Supreme Court seats during a four-year term. So Trump’s three successful nominations — replacing Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg after their deaths, and Justice Anthony Kennedy following his retirement — made an unusually consequential single term.
Now, having managed to become only the second person to be elected to non-consecutive terms, alongside Grover Cleveland, who was the 22nd and 24th U.S. president and successfully appointed four justices to the Supreme Court, Trump has an opportunity to hand-pick an ideological majority that could continue to define the court for decades to come, experts say. Though there is still much to play out over the next few years, experts say it is possible that Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — ages 77 and 76, respectively — retire or leave the court during Trump’s second term. Organizations such as the progressive advocacy group Demand Justice have already begun organizing a campaign to block any potential nominees, even though neither justice has shared plans to retire.
