华盛顿 —— 总统唐纳德·特朗普试图让法院“MAGA化”的日子结束了。
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s days of trying to MAGA-fy the courts are over.
随着民主党将于1月掌控参议院，特朗普将不再能指望共和党人仅仅为其终身联邦法官提名人“盖章通过”。
With Democrats set to take control of the Senate in January, Trump will no longer be able to count on Republicans to simply rubber-stamp his nominees to lifetime federal judgeships.
过去两年里，共和党参议员一直在这么做，确认了数十名法院提名人，这些人可以说从一开始就应该被取消资格：他们全都拒绝在参议院提名听证会上、在宣誓作证时承认特朗普输掉了2020年总统大选，或承认他煽动了2021年1月6日的国会山骚乱。
GOP senators have been doing this for the last two years, confirming dozens of court picks who arguably should have been disqualified from the start: all have refused to say during their Senate nomination hearings, under oath, that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election or that he incited the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
确认一名司法提名人在参议院需要51票，前提是所有100名参议员都在场。如果不到场，则只需简单多数。由于周二的选举结果，民主党将在1月掌握至少54个席位，如果阿拉斯加和密西西比仍在计票的两场选举对他们有利，可能达到56席。
It takes 51 votes in the Senate to confirm a judicial nominee, assuming all 100 senators are present. If they’re not, it takes a simple majority. Democrats will hold at least 54 seats in January as a result of Tuesday’s elections, and possibly 56, if two elections still being tallied in Alaska and Mississippi go their way.
这意味着在其余总统任期内，特朗普将不得不与民主党合作让其司法提名人获得通过，否则将面临一个也确认不了的风险。一些民主党人无论如何可能都不愿支持他的法院提名人，特别是那些盯着2028年总统大选的人。
That means for the rest of his presidency, Trump will have to work with Democrats to get his judicial nominees through, or risk getting none confirmed at all. Some Democrats may not be willing to support his court picks anyway, particularly those eyeing a 2028 presidential run.
未来两年，如果最高法院任何年迈的大法官退休或去世，他也将需要民主党在潜在最高法院提名人问题上点头。特朗普在其两个任期内已任命了三名最高法院大法官。
He’ll also need Democratic sign-off on any potential Supreme Court nominees over the next two years, should any of the court’s elderly justices retire or die. Trump has already appointed three Supreme Court justices between his two terms in office.
进步司法倡导组织“要求正义”主席乔什·奥顿表示，民主党“必须”认识到选民发出的“清晰授权”：他们受够了特朗普的腐败，这也延伸到了联邦法院。
Josh Orton, president of the progressive judicial advocacy group Demand Justice, said it is “essential” that Democrats recognize the “blaring mandate” voters sent them: They’re done with Trump’s corruption, and that extends to the federal courts.
民主党人需要停止与司法提名人进行“幕后、虚假的两党内部人马交易”，他说，指的是彼得·韦尔奇（佛蒙特州）和约翰·费特曼（宾夕法尼亚州）等参议员曾为特朗普的一些法院提名人投过赞成票。“要求正义”组织经常点名批评那些协助推进这位总统任何司法提名人的民主党人。
Democrats need to stop engaging in “backroom, faux bipartisan insider horse-trading” with judicial nominees, he said, referring to senators like Peter Welch of Vermont and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania who have voted for some of Trump’s court picks. Demand Justice routinely calls out Democrats who help to advance any of this president’s judicial nominees.
“他在任命撒谎且拒绝承认他输掉2020年大选的人，”奥顿告诉《赫芬顿邮报》。“你必须完全妄想，才会看了昨晚的结果，还认为存在一项授权，要在选举否认论者和为企业服务的人担任联邦法官的问题上进行两党合作。”参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默（民主党-纽约州），预计将于明年1月当选多数党领袖，他在周三发出信号，表示如果特朗普想让任何提名人获得通过，民主党将期待白宫提出不同层级的法院提名人。
“He has been appointing people who lie and won’t say he lost the 2020 election,” Orton told HuffPost. “You would have to be completely delusional to see last night’s results and believe there is a mandate for bipartisan cooperation on election-denying corporatists for the federal bench.”Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who will likely be elected majority leader come January, signaled Wednesday that Democrats will expect the White House to put forward a different calibre of court picks if Trump wants any confirmed.
“听着，我们想要的司法提名人要像我们在2023年和2024年展示的那样，遵守法律、忠于法律，”舒默对记者说，指的是前总统乔·拜登的法院提名人。“特朗普的太多提名人完全不具备这些品质。”自2025年就职以来，特朗普已让56名联邦法官获得终身职位确认，这使他远远落后于拜登在总统任期同期的确认数量（84名法官），也落后于他在第一任期同期的确认数量（同样是84名法官）。不过，他在第二任期面临的空缺职位较少。截至周三，联邦法院共有43个空缺职位。
“Look, we want judicial nominees like we showed in ’23 and ’24, who obey the law, who have fidelity to the law,” Schumer told reporters, referring to former President Joe Biden’s court picks. “Too many of Trump’s nominees did not have that at all.”Trump has confirmed 56 federal judges to lifetime posts since taking office in 2025, putting him well behind where Biden was by this point in his presidency (84 judges) and where Trump was by this point in his first term (also 84 judges). He’s had fewer vacancies to fill in his second term, though. As of Wednesday, there are 43 vacancies on federal courts.
现在的问题是，总统是否以及将如何与民主党人合作，在未来两年内填补这些法院席位。
The question now is whether, and how, the president will work with Democrats to fill these court seats over the next two years.
被问及置评时，一名白宫官员仅表示：“我们预计参议院所有待定的司法提名人今年都将获得确认。”目前参议院有22名司法提名人待定，处于流程的不同阶段。一名共和党参议院高级助手无法说清共和党是否能在跛脚鸭会期内让他们全部获得确认。但他们会尝试。
Asked for comment, a White House official said only, “We expect all judicial nominees pending in the Senate to be confirmed this year.”There are 22 judicial nominees currently pending in the Senate, in various stages of the process. A senior GOP Senate aide couldn’t say if Republicans would be able to get them all confirmed in the lame duck. But they’re going to try.
“目标将是确认尽可能多的人，”该助手表示，他要求以背景简报身份发言，因为共和党领袖仍在敲定计划。
“The goal will be to confirm as many as possible,” the aide said, who asked to speak on background as GOP leaders sort out their plans.
这22名司法提名人中，只有3人已准备好进行全院表决；其余均在等待参议院司法委员会采取行动。如果共和党领袖将此作为优先事项，民主党无法做太多事情来阻止共和党在委员会快速推进这些提名，并安排他们在参议院全院进行表决。
Only three of those 22 judicial nominees are ready for floor votes; the rest are awaiting action in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats can’t do much to stop the GOP from churning them through the committee and teeing them up for votes on the Senate floor, if Republican leaders make this a priority.
但民主党可以试图拖延进程。例如，他们可以确保全员出席每一次全院表决，这将给所有共和党人施加压力，迫使他们也必须出席每一次表决。他们还可以试图拖延时间，并通过参议院程序战术让所有人都感到痛苦，比如要求充分使用每位提名人分配的所有辩论时间，而不是同意缩短辩论。
But Democrats can try to gum up the process. They can make sure they’re all present for every floor vote, for example, which would keep pressure on all Republicans to show up for every vote, too. They can also try to run out the clock and generally make everyone miserable through the use of Senate procedural tactics, like requiring all allotted debate time on every nominee to be used, rather than agreeing to cut it short.
对共和党来说，过程也可能不顺利。有几名共和党议员刚刚竞选连任失败，其他人明年也不会回来，因此如果跛脚鸭会期拖得太久，有些人可能不想留下来。
It also may not be smooth sailing for the GOP. Several Republicans just lost reelection, and others aren’t coming back next year, so some may not want to stick around in the lame duck if it drags on.
甚至在选举举行之前，一些共和党参议员就因跛脚鸭会期待办事项堆积而感到恼火，担心共和党出席率会成为年底最后几周的一个问题。
Before the elections even took place, some GOP senators, annoyed by all the to-do items piling up for the lame duck, were worried about GOP attendance being a problem in the final weeks of the year.
“你永远不知道他们在中期选举后会是什么心情，”参议员约翰·肯尼迪（共和党-路易斯安那州）在9月下旬告诉记者，那是参议院为选举休会前一天。
“You never know what kind of mood they’re going to be in after the midterm elections,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters in late September, the day before the Senate went into recess ahead of the elections.
“总会有人不高兴，而这可能会影响他们推动事情办成的意愿，”肯尼迪说。“可能会出现出席问题。这就是为什么你需要真正做好规划。”特朗普任何尚未在跛脚鸭会期获得确认的司法提名人，到1月都将回到原点，因为白宫将需要重新提名他们，而他们的参议院确认程序将不得不从头再来一遍。只不过这一次，将由民主党决定推进的速度。
“Somebody’s going to be unhappy, and it could affect their appetite for getting something done,” Kennedy said. “You could have attendance problems. That’s why you want to actually plan.”Any of Trump’s pending judicial nominees who don’t get confirmed in the lame duck will be back at square one in January, as the White House will need to renominate them and their Senate confirmation process will have to start all over again. Except this time, Democrats will decide how quickly they move.
到了1月，参议员谢尔登·怀特豪斯（民主党-罗德岛州）将出任参议院司法委员会新任主席，该委员会负责监督司法提名人。他告诉《赫芬顿邮报》，他已准备好对该委员会的动作方式做出一些改变。
Come January, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is poised to become the new chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees judicial nominees. He told HuffPost he’s ready to make some changes to how this panel operates.
“参议院司法委员会的共和党人和特朗普政府已经掏空了该委员会的监督和确认权力，”怀特豪斯在一份声明中说。“共和党多年来的不良行为必须被追责，下一届国会对提名程序必须进行彻底重置。”本·韦斯对报道有贡献。
“Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Trump administration have gutted the Committee’s oversight and confirmation authority,” Whitehouse said in a statement. “There needs to be accountability for years of Republican bad behavior, and a hard reset on the nominations process next Congress.”Ben Weiss contributed reporting.