共和党在周二中期选举中未能保住对美国参议院的控制权，这也结束了总统唐纳德·特朗普所属政党快速任命法官的时代——该党曾借此用保守派法官重塑联邦法院。
The Republicans' failure to keep control of the US Senate in Tuesday's midterm elections also ends an era of rapid judicial appointments for President Donald Trump's party that it has used to reshape the federal courts with conservative judges.
自特朗普去年重返白宫以来，他一直依靠共和党主导的参议院轻松确认了56名终身任职的新法官，这还不包括他首个四年任期内作出的234项司法任命。
Since Trump returned to the White House last year, he has relied on the Republican-led Senate to easily confirm 56 new, life-tenured judges, adding to the 234 judicial appointments he made during his first four years in office.
但随着民主党人将从1月3日起在参议院占据至少54席的多数，白宫即将失去轻松确认与其保守价值观一致的法官的途径——更不用说填补美国最高法院未来可能出现的空缺了。
But with Democrats now set to hold at least a 54-seat majority in the Senate starting January 3, the White House is poised to lose its path to easy confirmation of judges aligned with its conservative values — let alone to fill potential future vacancies on the US Supreme Court.
“我预计民主党会有相当大的阻力，不会迁就那些在特朗普第二任期内获得确认的那类人，”跟踪司法提名动态的里士满大学法学教授卡尔·托比亚斯说。
"I expect there'll be a fair amount of Democratic push to not accommodate the kind of people who have been confirmed in Trump 2.0," said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who follows judicial nominations.
随着参议院司法委员会首席民主党人、伊利诺伊州参议员迪克·德宾即将退休，该委员会将由罗德岛州参议员谢尔登·怀特豪斯接任主席。怀特豪斯一直主张，参议员近年来把过多对提名的影响力让渡给了行政部门。
With the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, set to retire, the panel is set to be chaired by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who has argued that senators have in recent years forfeited too much of their influence over nominations to the executive branch. Republicans had braced for the possibility of losing control of the chamber, and the committee's outgoing Republican chair, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, has laid the groundwork for his party to approve as many of Trump's remaining nominees as possible during the lameduck session before Democrats take power.
共和党人此前已为可能失去参议院控制权做好了准备，该委员会即将离任的共和党主席、艾奥瓦州参议员查克·格拉斯利已为其政党铺路，力求在民主党掌权前的跛脚鸭会期内尽可能多地确认特朗普剩余的提名人选。
Over the objection of Democrats, Grassley last month scheduled two judicial nomination hearings on back-to-back weeks starting November 10, a break from the panel's typical practice of only holding such hearings once every two weeks.
不顾民主党人的反对，格拉斯利上月安排从11月10日起连续两周举行两场司法提名听证会，打破了该委员会通常每两周才举行一次此类听证会的惯例。
Doing so would allow the panel to take up nine judicial nominees pending before the committee.
这样做将使该委员会能够处理目前待审的九名司法提名人。另有13名提名人已出席委员会听证会，可能在圣诞节前由参议院全体表决。
Another 13 have already appeared before the committee and could be voted on by the full Senate before Christmas. "I expect every judicial nominee who has been nominated to date to be confirmed," Rob Luther, a George Mason University law professor who worked on judicial nominations in the White House Counsel's Office during Trump's first term.
乔治梅森大学法学教授罗布·路德曾在特朗普首任期内于白宫法律顾问办公室负责司法提名工作，他表示：“我预计迄今为止所有被提名的司法提名人都将获得确认。而且我认为他们不会离开，直到这件事发生。”一位白宫官员表示，预计所有待定的司法提名人都将在今年内获得确认。
"And I don't think they're going to leave until that happens." A White House official said it expects all of the pending judicial nominees to be confirmed this year.
确认的重中之重可能包括三个联邦中级上诉法院的四名待定提名人，其中包括特朗普最新提名的两名人选，他们将进入位于新奥尔良、由保守派主导的美国第五巡回上诉法院，分别是美国地区法法官安娜·圣约翰和菲尔普斯·邓巴律师事务所合伙人托德·巴特勒。
Top priorities for confirmation would likely include four pending nominees to three intermediate appeals courts, including Trump's two latest picks for the conservative-dominated 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, US District Judge Anna St. John and Phelps Dunbar partner Todd Butler.
但路德表示，一旦进入1月，随着民主党阻止特朗普任命联邦上诉法院法官或填补美国最高法院的任何空缺——该法院在其首任期内形成了6比3的保守派多数——司法确认将陷入停滞。
But Luther said that once January rolls around, judicial confirmations will slow to a trickle as Democrats prevent Trump from appointing judges to the federal appeals courts or filling any vacancies on the US Supreme Court — which gained its 6-3 conservative majority during his first term.
在地区法院层面，提名可能仅发生在白宫和参议院民主党人能够就司法提名人组合达成妥协、双方都获得心仪人选的情况下，路德说。即便如此，妥协也可能难以达成。
At the district court level, nominations would likely occur only in instances where the White House and Senate Democrats could come to compromises on packages of judicial nominees in which both sides got picks they favored, Luther said. Even there, compromise could be elusive.
进步倡导组织“争取正义联盟”周三指出，特朗普第二任期的司法提名人一再拒绝明确说明2020年总统大选中谁赢得了普选票——那次大选特朗普输给了民主党人乔·拜登——该组织敦促民主党在掌权后阻止特朗普再任命任何此类法官进入下级法院。
Noting that Trump's second-term judicial picks have routinely sought to avoid stating who won at the ballot box during the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden, the progressive advocacy group Alliance for Justice on Wednesday urged Democrats once in control to prevent Trump from appointing any more such judges to the lower courts.
美国司法联盟主席雷切尔·罗西在一份声明中表示：“然而，只要每一位被提名人继续通过否认2020年大选和1月6日事件来宣誓效忠特朗普，就很容易维持这样一种推定：特朗普任命的法官必须被拒绝。”特朗普将提名南卡罗来纳州州长办公室首席律师出任法官参议院共和党人计划在选举后发起闪电战，以确认特朗普的司法提名人随着中期选举临近，特朗普在任命法官方面面临紧迫的时间表
"So long as every nominee continues to swear loyalty to Trump by denying the 2020 election and January 6, however, it's easy to maintain a presumption that Trump judges must be rejected," Rachel Rossi, AFJ's president, said in a statement. Trump to nominate top lawyer to South Carolina governor to become judge Senate Republicans plan post-election blitz to confirm Trump's judicial nominees Trump faces tight timeline to appoint judges as midterms loom