President Donald Trump is poised to make another influential judicial appointment after a vacancy emerged on one of the nation’s most conservative federal appellate courts.
Judge Kurt Engelhardt of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has notified the White House that he plans to transition to senior status at the close of 2026, or once a successor is confirmed, whichever comes later. The move creates the first opening on the court during Trump’s second term and hands the administration an opportunity to further cement its imprint on a bench that already leans heavily conservative.
Senior status allows eligible federal judges to reduce their workload while remaining active in the judiciary. It also enables the president to nominate a new full-time judge to occupy the seat.
Court officials confirmed Engelhardt’s plans, noting that he intends to continue handling cases as a senior judge rather than stepping away from judicial duties altogether.
The vacancy carries significance far beyond New Orleans, where the Fifth Circuit is headquartered. The court oversees federal appeals from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, a region that has become a central battleground for legal challenges involving federal regulations, immigration policies, abortion disputes and gun rights.
Over the past several years, the Fifth Circuit has developed a reputation for issuing some of the most conservative rulings in the federal judiciary. Republican-appointed judges currently hold a commanding majority of the court’s seats, with several of those appointments made during Trump’s first term.
Before joining the appellate court in 2018, Engelhardt served for nearly two decades as a federal district judge in Louisiana. His judicial record on the Fifth Circuit includes several closely watched decisions involving national policy debates.
In one notable ruling, he concluded that the Biden administration could not enforce guidance requiring emergency-room physicians in Texas to perform abortions when deemed necessary to stabilize patients. In another high-profile case, he authored an opinion striking down a federal regulation targeting so-called “ghost guns,” privately assembled firearms that are difficult to trace.
That firearms ruling was later reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which determined that the federal government’s regulation was consistent with existing law.
With Engelhardt’s transition now set in motion, attention will quickly turn to who Trump selects for the influential seat. Given the Fifth Circuit’s outsized role in shaping national legal disputes, the appointment is expected to draw significant interest from conservative legal groups and lawmakers alike.
