PHILADELPHIA — The newest iteration of Philadelphia’s federal appeals court made its public debut this week, as two new judges nominated by President Donald Trump made their first appearances on the storied bench in the Center City courthouse.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit now has a majority of Republican-appointed judges — and six of the court’s 14 members have been appointed by Trump across his two terms in office.

It could take time for either of the new appointees — Emil Bove, a former prosecutor and onetime personal attorney for Trump, and former law professor Jennifer Mascott, confirmed along party lines by the Senate last week — to make a dramatic impact on the court, which hears cases involving Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands.

But scholars and legal experts nonetheless say the new conservative majority is notable, and a subtle demonstration of how the impact of Trump’s norm-busting second term could last well beyond his time in the White House.

“The Third Circuit is a critically important appeals court,” said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. “It does make a difference that there are two more appointees from Republican presidents as opposed to Democratic presidents.”

The Third Circuit has long been known as one of the busiest and most prestigious appellate courts in the federal system. Because it has jurisdiction over Delaware — the corporate home to many of the country’s biggest businesses — it often hears cases involving significant or influential corporate issues. Still, a variety of topics make their way to the bench.

The first arguments Bove and Mascott heard this week, for example, related to a case questioning the legality of New Jersey’s ban on assault rifles. Judges in the past have issued rulings on whether supervised drug consumption sites should be legal, and whether Philadelphia could ban employers from asking about applicants’ salary histories.

And Pennsylvania is one of the country’s most politically important swing states, meaning the Third Circuit could eventually be asked to decide cases with electoral consequences.

Villanova University law professor Michael Moreland said the Third Circuit has never had a reputation for being particularly ideological, unlike some other appellate courts — such as the famously liberal Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco, or the conservative Fifth Circuit, based in New Orleans, where 12 of the 17 judges are Republican appointees.

Judges on the Third Circuit have also typically displayed collegiality on the bench, said Tobias, the professor from Richmond, and have traditionally not authored caustic or pointed opinions targeting or belittling another judge’s perspective. Many judges appointed during Trump’s first term have also proven to be less bombastic than the president, Tobias added.

“Some of the appointees strike me as less ‘Trumpian,’ if you will, more like establishment Republicans,” Tobias said.

Some legal observers began wondering if that trend would hold in Trump’s second term after he nominated Bove earlier this year.

The 44-year-old had a remarkably contentious confirmation battle, with dozens of current and former judges, prosecutors, and self-described whistleblowers questioning whether Bove was loyal primarily to the law or to Trump.

Bove had previously worked as a criminal-defense attorney for Trump, including when Trump was convicted of concealing hush-money payments to a porn star to avoid damaging his 2016 presidential campaign.

And after Trump won a second term in office, Bove became the pugilistic face of the president’s desire to bring the Justice Department closer in line with the White House, firing prosecutors, dismissing a political corruption case, and pursuing aggressive enforcement initiatives to fulfill Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

But none of that derailed Bove’s confirmation to the bench. He was confirmed by a 50-49 vote in the Republican-controlled chamber in July.

(The New Jersey-based seat filled by Bove was vacant in part because Senate Republicans worked to sink the nomination of attorney Adeel Mangi, who had been nominated by President Joe Biden. Mangi never received a floor vote.)

Mascott, Trump’s second nominee, had a comparatively uneventful confirmation process. She was confirmed in a 50-47 vote last week after receiving support from all but one of the Senate’s Republicans.

Still, Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, was among those who opposed Mascott’s nomination, noting that her candidacy to fill a seat in his state was advanced despite a lack of support from either of Delaware’s senators. He also said Mascott had limited ties to the state and was not a member of the Delaware bar, all of which he called “norm-shattering.”

Mascott had most recently served as an attorney in Trump’s White House Counsel’s Office and, during his first term, worked in the Justice Department. She previously worked as a professor at Catholic University of America and George Mason University, and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and for current Justice Brett Kavanaugh while Kavanaugh was serving as an appellate court judge.

Experts say it can be difficult to predict how or if individual judges might make waves on an appellate bench. Cases are typically decided by panels of three randomly selected judges. And that, along with the 8-6 Republican majority on the Third Circuit bench, means most cases will be heard by an ideological mix of judges, said Moreland, the Villanova professor.

Moreland added that many cases are not especially controversial and can result in 3-0 decisions that do not attract much attention.

In addition, a number of factors can weigh on judges’ fidelity to the party of their nominator, said Laura E. Little, a professor at Temple University’s law school. While members of the public — and even presidents — might express a belief that a judge will rule on an issue in a certain way based on who nominated them, judges take an oath to make independent and impartial decisions.

“It is often observed … that judges tend toward impartiality over time, as their tenure on the bench extends,” Little said.

While the GOP advantage on the Third Circuit is slim, Trump may get the chance to expand it during the rest of his second term.

Federal judges receive lifetime appointments and do not have to retire. But they can choose to enter into so-called senior status based on a combination of their age and time on the bench, at which point the president would nominate a full-time successor.

Three Third Circuit judges will become eligible to take senior status during the remainder of Trump’s time in office. And two of those judges were appointed by Democrats, meaning if they step aside during that time, their replacements would be nominated by a Republican.

©2025 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Visit at inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.