Senate Confirms Trump’s Pick
The U.S. Senate has approved President Donald Trump’s first and only nominee to the Boston-based federal appeals court. Until recently, most of the justices on this court were chosen by Democrats and often rejected his policy proposals.
The Republican-led Senate voted 52-46 along party lines to make Joshua Dunlap, a conservative lawyer from Maine who often worked on conservative legal cases, a life-tenured judge on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
As of Thursday, that court was the only one of the 13 appeals courts without any active judges appointed by Republican presidents. That has helped make district courts in New England a popular place for Democratic state attorneys general and advocacy groups to file cases against Trump’s agenda.
In his first term, Trump didn’t name any judges to the 1st Circuit. At the start of his second term, he almost lost the chance to choose one when his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, put forth a nomination to fill a seat that U.S. Circuit Judge William Kayatta had held.
But Biden couldn’t get Julia Lipez confirmed as his candidate before he departed office. Kayatta, who Democratic President Barack Obama appointed, formally became a senior in October 2024, just days before the presidential election that delivered Trump back to the White House.
In July, Trump chose Dunlap, a partner at the legal firm Pierce Atwood, to fill the open position. He said that if the Senate confirmed him, he would “fearlessly defend our Constitution.”
Dunlap got his bachelor’s degree from Pensacola Christian College and then went to Notre Dame Law School, where he graduated in 2008. During law school, he worked as an intern with what is now known as the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal rights nonprofit.
As a lawyer, he has worked on cases that have challenged Maine’s paid family and medical leave program, the state’s campaign finance rules, and the use of ranked-choice voting to run the state’s elections.
This is the second judge approved this week.
The U.S. Senate also confirmed a former clerk for conservative Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and the late Antonin Scalia to be a judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Republican-controlled Senate voted 52 to 45 in favor of Eric Tung, a partner at Jones Day. This made him the first judge President Donald Trump selected for the San Francisco-based appeals court during his second administration.
His confirmation brings the total number of judges Trump appointed to the 9th Circuit from 2017 to 2020 during his first term to 10. This weakens the power of Democratic appointees, who have long held sway on a court that was previously thought to be the most liberal of all the federal appellate courts.
There are currently 16 Democratic appointees and 13 Republican appointees on the 9th Circuit, including Tung. In July, Trump nominated Tung to fill the seat that U.S. Circuit Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta had held. She stated in March that she would step down when a successor was named.
When Trump announced Tung’s nomination, he called him a “Tough Patriot” on social media and said he would preserve the Rule of Law in the “most RADICAL, Leftist States” like California, Oregon, and Washington. These are three of the nine states that the 9th Circuit has jurisdiction over.
Tung is a partner at the law firm Jones Day in Los Angeles. Before that, he was a federal prosecutor and worked for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Tung worked as a clerk for Gorsuch twice: once when he was on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and again after Trump confirmed him to the Supreme Court in 2017. He had also worked for Scalia, who passed away in 2016.
Fetterman Outrages Democrats Again With Statement About ICE
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) voiced support for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s efforts to apprehend illegal immigrants accused of child sex offenses, while Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) called for those individuals to face the death penalty.
In a Monday press release, ICE noted that it “arrested 214 illegal aliens for immigration offenses in the Houston area in the past six months who have been charged or convicted of a sex offense involving a minor.”
The Courtroom Whisper That Silenced the Mockery — How a ‘Teen Girl’ Turned the Tables on a Racist Cop and Stunned Everyone Present
The tension in the courtroom was thick, almost tangible. On one side stood Officer Mark Halsted, a man known for his arrogant smirks and sarcastic remarks, leaning casually against the witness stand as though the entire trial were beneath him. On the other stood a young woman — poised, calm, and silent — her hands folded neatly in front of her. Her name was Amara Lewis, and while everyone assumed she was just another teenage witness dragged into the chaos, they had no idea who she truly was.
The case had attracted attention across the city. It involved allegations of misconduct, racial profiling, and the misuse of authority — accusations directed straight at Officer Halsted himself. Throughout the proceedings, Halsted carried himself with the air of untouchable power, making snide comments and mocking the young woman whenever the opportunity arose. “Must be your first time in court, kid,” he had chuckled earlier, his voice loud enough for the jurors to hear.
Amara never flinched. Her silence wasn’t from fear — it was strategy. Every mocking glance, every careless smirk, every sarcastic remark… she absorbed it all, letting the courtroom believe the narrative that Halsted wanted them to see: a confident officer facing down an inexperienced girl.
But that illusion shattered the moment the judge gave Amara permission to speak.
She walked forward with measured grace, placing a stack of neatly organized documents on the podium. With a voice steady as steel, she began, “Your Honor, I would like to present Exhibit B.”
The entire room froze. Her tone, her vocabulary, her composure — they weren’t those of a frightened teenager. They belonged to someone trained, someone who understood the weight of her words. Halsted’s smirk faltered for the first time.
Then came the reveal.
Amara wasn’t just a witness. She was the lead defense attorney on the case, recently graduated at the top of her law school class, and the youngest attorney ever to represent a client in this court. She had let Officer Halsted underestimate her — had let him believe his ridicule mattered — just so she could dismantle his credibility when it counted most.
One by one, she presented bodycam footage, signed statements, and cross-examination transcripts. Each piece of evidence unraveled Halsted’s carefully constructed version of events, exposing inconsistencies he couldn’t explain. The jurors leaned forward in silence, captivated by every word.
By the end, the officer who once mocked her now sat pale and speechless, realizing he had walked himself into a trap of his own making. The courtroom, moments ago filled with quiet laughter at her expense, erupted into stunned whispers.
The judge adjusted his glasses, clearly impressed. “Ms. Lewis,” he said, “you may proceed.”
And she did. Calmly. Powerfully.
That day became a lesson that spread far beyond the courtroom — a reminder never to underestimate someone based on appearance, youth, or silence. Amara had walked in underestimated and walked out unforgettable.
