Trump wants more circuit court vacancies. Is this his plan for securing them?

The recent nominations of two children of Eighth Circuit judges raise an interesting question.

Yesterday, The New York Times published an analysis identifying Trump’s circuit court appointees as a “powerful but obscure bulwark” that strongly favored his administration’s actions in 2025. As the Times story says:

The president’s appointees voted to allow his policies to take effect 133 times and voted against them only 12 times. Ninety-two percent of their total votes were in favor of the administration. That figure far outstrips support for Mr. Trump’s agenda from appeals court judges appointed by other Republican presidents, and from Mr. Trump’s appointees to the district courts.

During his first term, Trump appointed 54 judges to circuit courts across the country. Last year, he added six more. But the president currently only has one more circuit court vacancy to fill, and he knows — as this new analysis demonstrates — how important those courts have been for upholding his agenda of discrimination.

Recent developments within the Eighth Circuit

On October 23, 2025, Judge Douglas Harpool of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri announced that he would take senior status — a form of semi-retirement for federal judges — upon the confirmation of his successor.

The following day, Judge Duane Benton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit wrote to Trump notifying the president that he would be taking senior status as well.

“Please be advised that upon the confirmation of my successor, I intend to retire from regular service as a United States Circuit Judge for the Eighth Circuit under the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 371(b)(1), having attained the age and met the service requirements of subsection (c) of that section,” the letter stated. “It is my intention to continue to render substantial judicial service as a senior judge.”

Judge Benton’s daughter, Megan Benton, was meanwhile under consideration for a judicial nomination. On the very same day her father announced his intent to take senior status, she “was notified by the White House Counsel’s Office that there would be an FBI background check” for her possible nomination. Exactly three weeks later, on November 14, Trump called her and said the nomination was hers.

It is unclear whether these events — Judge Harpool’s decision, Judge Benton’s announcement a day later, and the notification his daughter received the same day — are connected, but the timing is rather interesting.

As the White House considered whether to nominate Megan Benton, they came to a decision about another judicial nominee: John Thomas Shepherd. On November 12, according to his committee questionnaire, Trump called Shepherd and told him that if a vacancy arose on the federal bench in Arkansas, he would be the nominee. One week later, on November 19, Judge Susan Hickey of the Western District of Arkansas announced that she would take senior status, clearing the way for Shepherd’s eventual nomination. Last week, the president — as promised — announced that Shepherd would indeed be nominated.

Shepherd, like Megan Benton, is already a local judge. Like Benton, he is a member of the Federalist Society. And like Benton, his father, Judge Bobby Shepherd, is currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Trump told John Thomas Shepherd on November 12 that he’d receive a judicial nomination. Two days later, he called Megan Benton and told her the seat on the Western District of Missouri was hers — even though the Harpool-created vacancy wasn’t public at the time.

Did Trump nominate Megan Benton as a thank you for her father handing him a vacancy to fill on the Eighth Circuit? Or were those efforts coordinated? Did Trump nominate John Thomas Shepherd in order to nudge his father to vacate another seat on that court? And might this — nominating the children of circuit court judges to reward them for their retirement, or to nudge them into it — be a new strategy during the second Trump administration, especially as the president has far fewer judicial seats to fill this time around?

Three other judges on the Eighth Circuit — Judges Ralph Erickson, James Loken, and Lavenski Smith — are currently eligible to take senior status, and two others — Judges Steven Colloton and Raymond Gruender — will be eligible in 2028. It should be questioned whether the White House is looking for ways to tempt them into retirement, either by promising the appointment of a child or of former law clerks — or something else. Trump has, already this term, appointed multiple of Judge Gruender’s former clerks, including now-Judges Zachary Bluestone and Maria Lanahan, perhaps as a reassurance that his seat will be in trusted hands if he takes senior status in two years.

What comes next

Trump has not yet publicly named a nominee for the Eighth Circuit to replace Judge Duane Benton, but reports suggest that many potential nominees would be a disaster for civil and human rights. A nomination for the seat is expected early this year.

Across the country, 40 circuit court judges, including Judge Bobby Shepherd, are eligible to take senior status. More than half were appointed by Republican presidents. Twenty more circuit court judges will become eligible to take senior status during the remainder of Trump’s second term.

So far during Trump 2.0, judges have largely been reluctant to give up their seats and allow this president to replace them. But whether he can coax more of them into retirement — and how — is something worth paying attention to.