“It's one area where the administration has really been successful, so understanding what's happening is important,” said University of Georgia law professor Susan Brodie Haire.

A Times data analysis found Trump is ranked No. 6 of 19 presidents appointing the highest number of federal judges in their first year.

Trump has spent his first year rapidly filling Article III judgeships at Supreme, appellate and District Court levels.

Most federal judge appointments in a president's first year

Supreme Court Appellate Court District Court President Article III judicial appointments Donald Trump 6th: 23 judges Barack Obama 10th (tied): 13 judges George W. Bush 5th: 28 judges Bill Clinton 4th: 28 judges George H.W. Bush 9th: 15 judges Ronald Reagan 2nd: 41 judges Jimmy Carter 3rd: 31 judges Gerald R. Ford 7th (tied): 17 judges Richard M. Nixon 11th: 12 judges Lyndon B. Johnson 14th: 0 judges John F. Kennedy 1st: 78 judges

One reason Trump has been able to fast-track judges: His Republican Party holds a slim majority in the Senate. Another reason is a little bit of political warfare. Republican senators blocked 36 judicial nominations in President Obama’s first five years, according to Politifact. The best-known nominee was Judge Merrick Garland, chosen to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Frustrated Senate Democrats used procedural tactics to allow most judicial confirmation votes to pass with a simple majority instead of a super-majority of 60. “Nominations pretty much came to a halt until the start of the Trump administration when the Senate started quickly confirming his nominees,” Haire said. Even with Trump’s rapid clip, there are more than 140 vacancies in the federal judiciary awaiting appointments. Since taking office, Trump has appointed 12 circuit court judges – the second highest rate among any president since 1912, when the circuit court system was reformed. Although, he is behind some of his predecessors with District Court confirmations. The number for President Kennedy is so high because Congress in 1961 approved new judgeships to ease backlogs in the federal courts.

Current vacancies 145 Nominations confirmed 23 Nominations pending 43

The president has constitutional authority to nominate judges to the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals and District Courts. Judgeships at these three level are lifetime positions, also known as Article III judges. While it is ultimately the president who nominates, recommendations usually are sought from senators representing the states in question and from within the federal courts. Congress can then confirm or deny nominees by a majority vote. Article III judges have the ability to set significant precedents over a wide array of policies and laws affecting virtually all aspect of American life — including immigration, freedom of speech and religion, and how an individual can vote. Trump had appointed 23 Article III judges as of Jan. 17. Most of them replaced judges appointed by a Republican president; six replaced judges appointed by a Democrat. Four of the appointments to the appellate courts replaced appointees by Democratic presidents – two from Jimmy Carter and two from Bill Clinton. Two of the appointments to the District Courts replaced Obama appointees.

Source: Federal Judicial Center Supreme Court Antonin Scalia Neil M. Gorsuch Circuit Courts Kermit Edward Bye Ralph R. Erickson Previous judge TRUMP APPOINTED William Jay Riley L. Steven Grasz Joel F. Dubina Kevin Newsom Janice Rogers Brown Gregory G. Katsas Emilio M. Garza Don Willett Carolyn Dineen King James C. Ho John Daniel Tinder Amy Coney Barrett Boyce F. Martin Jr Amul Thapar Danny J. Boggs John K. Bush David W. McKeague Joan Larsen Neil M. Gorsuch Allison H. Eid Marjorie O. Rendell Stephanos Bibas District Courts Rosemary M. Collyer Timothy J. Kelly Richard J. Leon Trevor N. McFadden Reggie B. Walton Dabney L Friedrich Edward J. Lodge David Nye Julie E. Carnes Michael L. Brown Kevin Hunter Sharp William L. Campbell Jr. Joseph F. Anderson Jr. Donald C. Coggins Jr. Robert A. Junell Walter David Counts III Stephen P. Friot Scott L. Palk Samuel H. Mays Jr. Thomas L. R. Parker Party of the appointing president GOP GOP DEM GOP

How Trump's nominees stack up Four of Trump’s nominees so far have been rated not qualified by the American Bar Assn.’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary. That’s 6.1% of his nominees, far more than recent presidents.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Not qualified Well qualified Qualified 6.1% 0% 30.3 51.5 TRUMP Trump’s nominees have the most not qualified ratings 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 7 0 80 Not qualified Well qualified Qualified 35.4 64.6 OBAMA 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 7 0 80 Not qualified Well qualified Qualified 1.93% 29.8 66.81 W. BUSH Note: Trump made 66 nominations in his first year. Pending ratings not included. Obama nominated 500 nominations and Bush 467 during their administration. Ratings were simplified by taking the majority rating of each nomination. Sources: American Bar Assn., Federal Judicial Center

Nearly every presidential administration since 1953 has sought out the ABA’s assessments before deciding who to nominate to the federal bench. President George W. Bush is the only other president besides Trump to ignore the ratings. Republican leadership recently criticized the ABA’s ratings as partisan, despite the group saying its review process is independent. ABA scores are based on assessments of a candidate’s “integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament” not on their politics or ideologies, according to the committee’s guidelines. The assessments include examining questionnaires candidates fill out, legal writings, and interviews with the nominee as well as colleagues and others in the legal field. The vetting process, no matter how thorough and precise the ABA claims to be, isn’t without fault. U.S. District Court judge nominee Matthew S. Petersen was rated as “Qualified” despite being unable to answer basic questions about law when Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) questioned him at his confirmation hearing. Petersen later withdrew his nomination. The White House was forced to withdraw two other nominees due to insufficient vetting. Leonard Steven Grasz is the only Article III judge to be confirmed who was rated "Not Qualified" by the ABA. Of the 23 confirmed judges, only nine have previous judicial experience and most have backgrounds in litigation in either private practice or government. While some of the judges were questioned for conservative opinions they’ve expressed in the past, the question of how they will individually affect the courts remains. “There is no doubt that his nominees are generally conservative,” said Columbia Law School professor Jamal Greene. “There is also no way of measuring that question objectively, since the majority of them have no prior judicial experience.”

Confirmed judge ABA rating Previous judicial experience? Main fields of experience SUPREME COURT Neil M. Gorsuch Associate Justice Well Qualified Yes Federal judiciary COURT OF APPEALS Amy Coney Barrett 7th Circuit Well Qualified No Academia Stephanos Bibas 3rd Circuit Well Qualified No Academia, litigation John K. Bush 6th Circuit Qualified No Litigation Allison H. Eid 10th Circuit Well Qualified Yes Academia, state judiciary Ralph R. Erickson 8th Circuit Well Qualified Yes State judiciary, litigation L. Steven Grasz 8th Circuit Not Qualified No Litigation, government James C. Ho 5th Circuit Well Qualified No Litigation, government Gregory G. Katsas District of Columbia Circuit Well Qualified No Litigation, government Joan Larsen 6th Circuit Well Qualified Yes State judiciary, academia Kevin Newsom 11th Circuit Well Qualified No Litigation, government Amul Thapar 6th Circuit Well Qualified Yes State judiciary, government, academia Don Willett 5th Circuit Well Qualified Yes State judiciary, policy, govermemt DISTRICT COURTS Michael Lawrence Brown Northern District of Georgia Not yet rated No Litigation, government William L. Campbell Jr. Middle District of Tennessee Not yet rated No Litigation Donald C. Coggins Jr. District of South Carolina Well Qualified No Litigation Walter David Counts III Western District of Texas Not yet rated Yes Federal Judiciary, litigation Dabney L. Friedrich District of Columbia Well Qualified No Policy, litigation, government Timothy J. Kelly District of Columbia Well Qualified No Policy, litigation Trevor N. McFadden District of Columbia Qualified No Litigation, policy, government David Nye District of Idaho Well Qualified Yes State judge, litigation Scott L. Palk Western District of Oklahoma Well Qualified No Litigation, academia Thomas Lee Robinson Parker Western District of Oklahoma Not yet rated Yes Federal Judiciary, litigation