“The 3rd Circuit court is not tied, it has one more Democrat than Republicans.”
According to Wikipedia there are now 13 Republican appointed Judges and 11 Democrat Judges on the full 3rd appeals court with one vacancy:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Third_Circuit
Scott I think you are counting senior judges. They don’t count in the majority because they can’t vote in cases heard by the whole court. There are an unreasonable # of senior judges drawing full pay and hearing as many or as few case as they desire (ages 88-71).
Right now 6 Republican appointed and 7 Democrat appointed with one vacancy to be filled which will make it tied.
One good point you bring up by including senior judges is they can still hear cases and thus contribute to judicial activism.
However most are in their 70’s 80’ and 90’s and don’t hear many cases. Even though they were appointed by Democrats since they are from an earlier era they would be more likely closer to mainstream rather than ultra liberal as well.
While they have an influence based on the cases they hear their rulings would be subject to the full district court re hearing their cases if the ruling were appealed as well as recourse to the appeals court. That is why while we have a lot of work to do the order of importance is from top down, Supreme, Appeals, District. The district court judges seem to retire earlier and President Trump may have the opportunity to appoint many of these positions in the next 6 years.