Senate Republicans are scrambling to confirm about two dozen of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees before Democrats take control of the chamber in January, in a lame-duck dash that is already running into friction inside the president's own party. Democrats won the Senate in the 3 November midterm elections and are due to take the gavel on 3 January, when they will be able to block further confirmations.

As of Tuesday, 23 judicial nominees were still pending, four for the federal appeals courts and 19 for district courts, with some counts putting the total at 25. The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced four nominees to the floor on Tuesday, and its chairman, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, has scheduled nomination hearings on back-to-back weeks starting 10 November, breaking with the panel's usual fortnightly rhythm. Majority Leader John Thune has made the confirmations the top item in a 54-day plan for the remainder of Republican control.

A 54-day countdown

The rush matters because federal judges serve for life. Trump has had 56 judges confirmed in his second term, on top of 234 in his first, according to Reuters, and every seat filled now will outlast the incoming Democratic majority. The White House has said it expects all of the pending nominees to be confirmed this year. Top priorities include four appeals court picks, among them two for the conservative-dominated Fifth Circuit in New Orleans.

Friction inside the party

The compressed timetable has already produced clashes. Trump formally announced the nomination of T. Elliot Gaiser, head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, for a Texas district court seat less than a week after Senator Ted Cruz called him about the vacancy. Senators John Cornyn and Cruz say Gaiser bypassed the screening process they run for Texas openings, a problem sharpened by the election of Democrat James Talarico to the Senate from Texas, who will have a veto over district nominees. The White House also had to drop its appeals court pick for Arkansas, Judge Lee Rudofsky, this week, while a district court nomination in Oklahoma faces resistance from a home-state Republican senator.

"We're going to make every second count, and that means all these judicial appointments," said Senator John Barrasso, the Republican whip. Democrats have limited tools to slow the process, since judicial nominees need only a simple majority, but the party's incoming leader, Chuck Schumer, has vowed not to allow a "right-winger" onto the Supreme Court.