The U.S. Senate has confirmed Eric Tung — a conservative legal mind shaped under the tutelage of Justices Neil Gorsuch and the late Antonin Scalia — to the influential 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, marking President Donald Trump’s first appointment to the San Francisco-based court in his second term.
With a 52–45 vote, the Republican-led chamber pushed through Tung’s confirmation, continuing Trump’s long game of reshaping America’s appellate courts. The Los Angeles-based attorney and Jones Day partner now fills the seat left by Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta, who had announced her transition to senior status earlier this year.
Tung’s addition narrows what was once a deep blue tilt within the 9th Circuit. Once the stronghold of progressive judicial thought, the court now counts 16 Democratic appointees and 13 from Republican presidents — a balance that would have seemed improbable a decade ago.
Trump hailed Tung as a “Tough Patriot” and “defender of the rule of law,” especially in what he called “radical, leftist” jurisdictions like California, Oregon, and Washington — all within the court’s reach.
Before ascending to the bench, Tung built a résumé that checked every conservative credential box: federal prosecutor, senior roles at the Department of Justice, and clerkships with both Scalia and Gorsuch — the latter twice, once on the 10th Circuit and again after Gorsuch joined the Supreme Court.
But Tung’s confirmation was not without turbulence. Senate Democrats challenged his past writings, particularly a 2004 student column in Yale’s newspaper in which he criticized “radical feminists” for “blurring gender roles.” He defended his comments, framing them as youthful rhetoric in response to an activist lecture he found extreme.
Despite objections from Democratic lawmakers — including Senator Alex Padilla of California, who labeled Tung’s remarks “reprehensible” — the vote underscored Trump’s continued success in cementing a judicial legacy that stretches far beyond his time in office.
With this appointment, the ideological makeup of the 9th Circuit edges closer to equilibrium — and the legal battlegrounds of the American West may soon feel the shift.
