A Quarter Century of Circuit Courts: Tracing Composition from 2000 to 2026
To celebrate America’s 250th birthday, Judicial Hub has traced the composition of active judges on the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals from 2000 to 2026, charting how presidents have shaped the federal bench. Select a year to see which judges served on each circuit and who appointed them, filter by president to see their influence across the country, and compare individual circuits against national trends over time. For this interactive, the year “starts” on January 20th to align with presidential administrations.
Source: Federal Judicial Center
This map can also be viewed as a timeline. Below is an interactive timeline of every seat on the U.S. Courts of Appeals from 2000 to today, showing which judge held each seat and which president appointed them. Select a circuit and click any segment for details about the judge.
Source: Federal Judicial Center
This interactive chart traces every judicial seat handoff on the U.S. courts of appeals from 2000 to 2026. Each row shows the president who appointed the outgoing judge, and each column shows the president who appointed the judge who replaced them. Cell color blends both presidents’ colors, with intensity indicating the strength of the relationship.
How to read this chart:
Count shows the raw number of seat handoffs between any two presidents.
Row percent shows, of the seats a given president’s appointees left, what share went to each successor.
Column percent shows, of the seats a given president filled, what share came from each predecessor.
Source: Federal Judicial Center
Note: Gerald B. Tjoflat (Ford appointee on the 5th Circuit) and R. Lanier Anderson III (Carter appointee on the 5th Circuit) were originally on the 5th Circuit but were moved to the newly created 11th Circuit when Congress split the circuit by statute. Both are still counted as appointees of the presidents who originally nominated them.