{"id":135728,"date":"2025-10-23T13:53:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T21:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/23\/third-circuit-has-been-utterly-transformed-by-donald-trump\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T13:53:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T21:53:21","slug":"third-circuit-has-been-utterly-transformed-by-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/23\/third-circuit-has-been-utterly-transformed-by-donald-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Third Circuit Has Been Utterly Transformed By Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month<\/a> Jennifer Mascott became Donald Trump\u2019s most recent appointee to the Third Circuit. It was done over the objections of the home state senators; neither senator from Delaware returned their blue-slip from either Delaware senator (the tradition<\/a>\u00a0of seeking home state senator approval before confirming a judge, which the first Trump administration\u00a0abandoned<\/a>\u00a0to get more lifetime appointment for conservative nominees). And while the Democrats from Delaware might have objected to a great many potential nominees, the fact that Mascott is not a member of the Delaware bar just added salt to the wound.<\/p>\n

Those tangential ties to The First State (she owns a vacation home there) \u2014 and all the conservative bona fides \u2014 were enough for Mascott to get the nod from Trump. As reported by<\/a> Jezebel:<\/p>\n

\n

Mascott, a former law professor at Catholic University, is deeply conservative, having\u00a0clerked<\/a>\u00a0for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and for then-appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh. During Trump\u2019s first term, she\u00a0worked<\/a>\u00a0for the Justice Department and assisted the White House with the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. She also joined Trump 2.0 earlier this year by taking a job in the White House Counsel\u2019s office. Mascott has\u00a0praised<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0Dobbs<\/em>\u00a0decision overturning\u00a0Roe v. Wade<\/em>, after saying that\u00a0Roe<\/em>\u00a0belonged<\/a>\u00a0in \u201cthe dustbin of history.\u201d\u00a0In late 2021, while speaking at a Senate\u00a0hearing,<\/a>\u00a0she also\u00a0defended<\/a>\u00a0the court\u2019s decision not to strike down the\u00a0Texas bounty hunter abortion ban<\/a>\u00a0that nullified\u00a0Roe.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mascott was confirmed by a 50-47 vote, with pro-choice Republican Lisa Murkowski voting against the nomination. <\/p>\n

But that isn\u2019t the most controversial thing to happen to the Third Circuit. That dubious honor, of course, goes to the elevation of Emil Bove. Nothing could stop the former Trump henchman\u2019s lifetime appointment \u2014 not a whistleblower<\/a>, not 900 former DOJ attorneys<\/a> all screaming NO, nothing. <\/p>\n

This all leaves the Third Circuit with a conservative majority. Of the 14 active judges on the circuit, 8 were appointed by Republican judges and six of those by Donald Trump himself. It\u2019s a helluva legacy he\u2019s leaving on his sister\u2019s (the late Judge Maryanne Trump Barry<\/a>) home circuit. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Third Circuit Has Been Utterly Transformed By Donald Trump<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Photo by David Becker\/Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Earlier this month<\/a> Jennifer Mascott became Donald Trump\u2019s most recent appointee to the Third Circuit. It was done over the objections of the home state senators; neither senator from Delaware returned their blue-slip from either Delaware senator (the tradition<\/a>\u00a0of seeking home state senator approval before confirming a judge, which the first Trump administration\u00a0abandoned<\/a>\u00a0to get more lifetime appointment for conservative nominees). And while the Democrats from Delaware might have objected to a great many potential nominees, the fact that Mascott is not a member of the Delaware bar just added salt to the wound.<\/p>\n

Those tangential ties to The First State (she owns a vacation home there) \u2014 and all the conservative bona fides \u2014 were enough for Mascott to get the nod from Trump. As reported by<\/a> Jezebel:<\/p>\n

\n

Mascott, a former law professor at Catholic University, is deeply conservative, having\u00a0clerked<\/a>\u00a0for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and for then-appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh. During Trump\u2019s first term, she\u00a0worked<\/a>\u00a0for the Justice Department and assisted the White House with the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. She also joined Trump 2.0 earlier this year by taking a job in the White House Counsel\u2019s office. Mascott has\u00a0praised<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0Dobbs<\/em>\u00a0decision overturning\u00a0Roe v. Wade<\/em>, after saying that\u00a0Roe<\/em>\u00a0belonged<\/a>\u00a0in \u201cthe dustbin of history.\u201d\u00a0In late 2021, while speaking at a Senate\u00a0hearing,<\/a>\u00a0she also\u00a0defended<\/a>\u00a0the court\u2019s decision not to strike down the\u00a0Texas bounty hunter abortion ban<\/a>\u00a0that nullified\u00a0Roe.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Mascott was confirmed by a 50-47 vote, with pro-choice Republican Lisa Murkowski voting against the nomination. <\/p>\n

But that isn\u2019t the most controversial thing to happen to the Third Circuit. That dubious honor, of course, goes to the elevation of Emil Bove. Nothing could stop the former Trump henchman\u2019s lifetime appointment \u2014 not a whistleblower<\/a>, not 900 former DOJ attorneys<\/a> all screaming NO, nothing. <\/p>\n

This all leaves the Third Circuit with a conservative majority. Of the 14 active judges on the circuit, 8 were appointed by Republican judges and six of those by Donald Trump himself. It\u2019s a helluva legacy he\u2019s leaving on his sister\u2019s (the late Judge Maryanne Trump Barry<\/a>) home circuit. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month Jennifer Mascott became Donald Trump\u2019s most recent appointee to the Third Circuit. It was done over the objections of the home state senators; neither senator from Delaware returned their blue-slip from either Delaware senator (the tradition\u00a0of seeking home state senator approval before confirming a judge, which the first Trump administration\u00a0abandoned\u00a0to get more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":135693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-dJRdwc.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}