Trump’s Mark on Ninth Circuit Tested as Challenges Progress

The influence of President Donald Trump’s judicial picks on the nation’s largest appeals court faces an initial test as the historically liberal San Francisco-based bench weighs challenges to the administration’s agenda.

Trump reshaped the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit during his first term. He flipped four seats once held by judges tapped by Democrats and left the court with nearly as many Republican-appointed active judges as Democratic ones.

The appeals court’s more balanced composition increases the odds that progressive litigants challenging Trump’s second term agenda might wind up with a panel of majority Republican-appointed judges. The Ninth ...