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Written By TNT Staff, Posted on November 13, 2026
Republicans lost the House last week. They still hold the Senate until January, and they are using every remaining week to do the one thing a lame-duck Senate can do that a hostile House cannot undo: confirm federal judges for life.
On Thursday, the Senate confirmed Gregory Carl Cook to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama by a party-line vote of 49-27. The same afternoon, it voted to end debate on two of President Trump’s appeals court nominees: Daniel Desmond Domenico, of Colorado, for the 10th Circuit (51-27), and Anna St. John, of Louisiana, for the 5th Circuit (49-26). All three votes were party-line, according to the Senate’s official floor log.
Domenico’s confirmation vote is set for 5:30 p.m. ET on Monday, Nov. 16. St. John’s final vote will come at a time to be determined.
Majority Leader John Thune isn’t stopping at three. On Wednesday, according to the Senate floor log, he filed cloture on four more district court nominees:
Under a unanimous consent agreement reached Thursday, those cloture motions ripen at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 16. The Senate Judiciary Committee lists more nominees waiting behind them.
Two appellate seats matter most. The 5th Circuit, which covers Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, hears a large share of the country’s border, energy and Second Amendment cases. The 10th Circuit covers Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming, a large part of the Mountain West and its fights over federal land, water and guns. Both nominees would fill seats opened by retirements: Judge Kurt Engelhardt’s on the 5th Circuit and Judge Timothy Tymkovich’s on the 10th, according to the Judiciary Committee.
Most of what this Congress passed can be repealed, defunded or ignored by the next one. A confirmed federal judge stays until he or she retires. A judge confirmed in his 40s or 50s can hear cases for decades, long after the members who voted for him are gone.
That is why the lame-duck calendar matters. Starting in January, every bill will need to get through a Democratic House. Nominations never go to the House, but a Senate that spends the next two years on oversight fights, spending standoffs and possible impeachment theatrics will have less floor time for them. Every judge confirmed now is one fewer left waiting.
Democrats know this, which is why every vote on Thursday split along party lines. Both parties understand that the courts are the last stop for most policy fights, and that the people on the bench decide whether the Constitution is applied as written or reinterpreted to fit the moment.
The Senate is also juggling a major permitting reform bill, H.R. 2347, which it votes on next week as well. Senators John Barrasso and Chuck Grassley both spoke on the floor Thursday about the work left before the 119th Congress ends. The judges should stay at the top of that list. A road permit can be rewritten next year. A circuit seat filled in November can’t be.
Monday, 5:30 p.m. ET: the confirmation vote on Domenico, followed by a cloture vote on the permitting bill’s substitute amendment. Then cloture on Bennett, Coker, Reardon and Ballou, and a final vote on St. John. If Republicans keep the discipline they showed Thursday, they can clear the whole queue before the new Congress is sworn in.
Sources: U.S. Senate Daily Press floor logs (Nov. 11 and 12, 2026); U.S. Senate Periodical Press Gallery floor log archive; Senate Judiciary Committee, judicial nominations.
November 13, 2026 November 13, 2026
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