The U.S. Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump’s first nominee to the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, filling a court that had previously seen mostly Democratic appointments. The Republican-led Senate voted 52-46 along party lines to approve Joshua Dunlap, a conservative lawyer from Maine, giving him a life-tenured seat on the appeals court.
Until now, the 1st Circuit had no active judges appointed by Republican presidents, making it a popular venue for legal challenges to Trump-era policies. Dunlap, a partner at the law firm Pierce Atwood, has a background in conservative legal work. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Pensacola Christian College and his law degree from Notre Dame in 2008. While in law school, he interned with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal nonprofit.
As a practicing lawyer, he has challenged Maine’s family leave policies, campaign finance rules, and the use of ranked-choice voting in state elections. In a separate vote, the Senate also confirmed Eric Tung to the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Tung, a former clerk for Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Antonin Scalia, received a 52-45 confirmation. His appointment makes him the first judge Trump has selected for the 9th Circuit during his second term and brings the total of Trump appointees on that court to 11, slightly shifting the balance against Democratic appointees.
Both confirmations mark a significant expansion of Trump’s judicial influence in federal appellate courts. Dunlap and Tung are expected to play key roles in cases involving state policies and federal law, while reinforcing the conservative presence in historically Democratic-leaning circuits.
