By Denney
President Trump may get the chance to turn the federal courts in Manhattan conservative.
Last week, he added two more judges to the 13-judge US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit — making the balance seven liberals to six conservatives.
Soon, he will get to add two more.
Circuit Judges Christopher Droney and Dennis Jacobs have announced they would be retiring in June, thus allowing Trump — who has vowed to nominate only conservative judges — to add two more of his own picks to the court.
The Manhattan appeals court took the first step toward a conservative takeover this week, when the Senate confirmed Joseph Bianco and Michael Park as new members.
Bianco, a Queens native who was a federal judge in a lower court in Brooklyn, was confirmed 54-42 last week with some Democratic support.
Park — a lawyer who has supported the Trump administration effort to put citizenship questions on the Census — was confirmed last Thursday 52-41.
He got strong opposition from both New York senators, Democrats Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who called him an “extreme right-wing” pick.
Schumer also called him a “stooge” for the Federalist Society, a conservative legal network.
The federal appeals courts occupy a powerful role in the US judicial system — ranking just below the Supreme Court and reviewing tens of thousands of cases annually.
The Manhattan appeals court sees many business and securities-related cases.
