A bevy of empty seats in Washington, D.C.’s local courts could pose problems for President Donald Trump’s efforts to bring more criminals to justice, and a left-leaning government panel exerts control over who fills them.
D.C.’s Superior Court system currently has 13 vacancies, or one-in-five empty seats, and two in its appeals courts, hampering the district’s ability to process criminal cases. If unresolved, the inefficiency could weaken the impact of the hundreds of arrests made since Trump declared war on D.C. crime, and left-leaning members of the district’s Judicial Nominating Commission (JNC) may stand in the way of Trump appointing the tough-on-crime judges he prefers, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“President Trump’s efforts to clean up Washington, D.C., face a serious obstacle in the form of outdated, unconstitutional laws that stripped the president of control over the city’s broken justice system,” said Mike Davis, founder and president of the Article III Project. “The disastrous Home Rule Act of 1973 handed day-to-day authority to a radical and incompetent leftist local government that has failed the city for decades.”
Over 1,000 arrests and more than 100 illegal guns seized.
Last night, another 86 arrests including multiple suspects accused of assaulting law enforcement and National Guard — and a suspected Tren de Aragua gang member.
Every day of our mission we are making DC safe again. pic.twitter.com/PhP26CEtZi
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) August 25, 2025
Over 1,000 arrests and more than 100 illegal guns seized.Under D.C. law, local judicial nominees are “recommended” to the president by the JNC, and the president must choose nominees from the commission’s list within 60 days for Senate consideration. After 60, the JNC can appoint them “with the advice and consent of the Senate” without the president having a say, the law says. The president may only appoint one of the JNC’s seven members.
“That’s anathema to the Constitution, and I think it’s a constitutionally flawed system that’s currently in place,” Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Zack Smith told the DCNF. The former assistant U.S. attorney is among the conservative legal experts who argue that only the president and Congress should seat D.C. judges, as they normally do at the federal level.
JNC chair Marie Johns and the White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the DCNF.
Almost all JNC members are chosen by the mayor, the D.C. Bar, the city council and the chief judge of D.C.’s federal district court. Washington has never had a Republican mayor, it has no Republican city council members and its chief federal district judge is a former President Barack Obama appointee who has repeatedly ruled against Trump’s policies.
Current JNC members include a lawyer appointed by Obama and reappointed by former President Joe Biden, three members who publicly pride themselves in so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) principles and the stronglyTrump-critical District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
Trump has only nominated one judge to D.C.’s Superior Court since returning to office: JNC pick Edward O’Connell. Trump described O’Connell in a May social media post as a former “Tough on Crime Prosecutor” who will make D.C. safer.
However, the JNC still does not generally favor Trump’s agenda, Smith told the DCNF.
“Unfortunately, the judges on D.C.’s Superior Court are notorious for imposing very lenient sentences, even on those convicted of committing a very violent crime,” Smith said. “They’re also notorious for releasing back onto the streets those accused, and those who have a record, of committing very violent crimes, who pose a danger to the community when they’re released.”
In one high-profile case, a man who killed someone as a teenager in 1995 was sentenced to at least 66 years in prison, but a Superior Court judge gave him early release in 2020 based on a law that allows courts to reevaluate harsh sentences, according to The Washington Post. Months later, he shot a man to death in the middle of a street, for which a jury convicted him of murder again.
A Superior Court judge also freed two teen suspects from detention on Thursday after they were charged in an attempted carjacking that led to the beating of a former Trump administration staffer, according to multiple reports. One suspect reportedly had another case pending in Maryland before her D.C. arrest.
Since D.C. prohibited cash bail in most cases in 1992, local courts typically release over 90% of defendants before trial, including 95% of the 11,630 charged in fiscal year 2024, according to the district’s Pretrial Services Agency. After conviction, violent offenders can receive little to no jail time if they were juveniles when committing the crimes — a system Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has called “absurd.” (RELATED: Liberals Claim DC Violent Crime Is Down With Stats Excluding Entire Categories Of Assaults)
— Ellie Fromm (@ellielfromm) August 15, 2025
The Trump administration has temporarily federalized the D.C. police department, put more federal agents and National Guard troops in the streets and promised to aggressively prosecute when possible. The judicial vacancy problem must also be solved to make D.C. safer, according to Manhattan Institute fellow Charles Lehman, who studies public safety issues.
“Fewer judges means a slower court, and a slower court is a disaster for basically everyone involved,” Lehman told the DCNF in an email. “Remaining judges and court employees are overworked; offenders are denied their right to a speedy trial; victims and/or their families don’t get speedy justice; and deterrence, which depends on swiftness of punishment, breaks down.”
“Whether you want to hold people accountable or ensure that people get the process they’re due, too few judges will slow you down,” Lehman said.
Trump has multiple options to challenge the JNC’s “constitutionally questionable” process, Smith told the DCNF. One way is to simply nominate judges without the commission’s approval and see if Congress approves, he said. The full Senate typically votes on the nominees after they pass through the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Republicans currently control.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) could also file a legal motion asking a higher court to assess whether JNC-appointed judges can legitimately hold office, Smith said.
Congress and former President Richard Nixon established the JNC through the 1973 Home Rule Act, which some Republicans want overturned to restore federal control over D.C. Trump told reporters on Aug. 5 that his administration would “look at” the possibility of overturning it.
“If President Trump is to succeed in restoring law and order in our nation’s capital, Congress must act swiftly to repeal this law immediately,” Davis told the DCNF.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Adam Michael Szuscik/Unsplash)
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