Court of Appeals Ideological Leanings

[Donerail]

Just counting Presidents was a poor strategy 20 years ago, but it's become a better one since then as Obama and Trump nominated virtually no circuit court judges who didn't share their ideological leanings, and even Bush nominated very few (Peter Hall is gone, but I guess Helene White and Ilana Rovner -- a GHWB nominee -- are still there).

On the other side of things, the only Clinton judge who regularly pops up in voting with conservatives is Judge Tallman on the 9th. There's a handful of outliers here (Gregory on the 4th...) and it may be easier to just learn who they are.

[Donerail]

Conservatives are quite close to that point on the First Circuit. The last Republican-appointed judge on that circuit is assuming senior status soon (a GWB appointee). Two Republican appointees with senior status are no longer actively hearing cases. Assuming Biden gets a successor confirmed, that would leave zero Republican-appointed judges in active service and two in senior status (including the quite interesting Bruce Selya).

Everything that you've said is technically correct, although it should be noted that Judge Gelpí was a W. appointee on the district court in PR &, for a Biden judge, is ruling well to the right of the mainstream, having just voted with Chief Judge Howard & the 'conservative' position in 2 immigration cases as well as in a recent 1A en-banc vote.

Why would Biden do so? There is nothing to stop him from nominating a liberal to that seat.

And most R senators voted against Judge Gelpí.

Gelpí was the choice pushed by leading members of the New Progressive Party, which currently includes both Gov. Pedro Pierluisi (a Democrat) and Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González (a Republican). He was known to be a moderate from his history as a judge (he was appointed to the district court by Bush and had made donations to members of both mainland parties), and island progressives were advocating for a different choice, Gina Méndez-Miró, who sits on a territorial appellate court. Biden certainly could have gone with a more liberal appointee for this seat — there are some rumors that he plans to do so for future judicial vacancies linked to Puerto Rico — but in this case he chose not to risk alienating the local politicians who supported Gelpí.

The vast majority of Republican senators are opposed to any Biden nominees to any court. The fact that they voted against Gelpí, who's had a spotless record over two decades as a federal judge, says more about the state of the Republican Party than it does about any particular judge.