This week, we're zooming out a bit and looking at the state of the federal judiciary.

To help us understand what's going on, we've got William & Mary law professor Jonathan Adler back on the show. He recently wrote a piece that laid out just how few judicial appointments President Donald Trump has actually made since the beginning of his second term. Not only that, but just how few opportunities he has to make new appointments from here through the end of his term.

Adler said there are just not as many federal judges retiring or creating openings by taking senior positions as there have been for other presidents, or even for Trump's first term. He said Trump's controversial appointment of his former personal lawyer Emil Bove to an appellate seat, and the potential shift in approach toward vetting it represents, may be giving current judges pause. But, he argued non-political factors, such as the increasing longevity of judges, may be playing an even bigger role.

Adler said the slow pace of vacancies and the uncertain nature of Trump's approach to his second-term appointments cast doubt on whether he'll have as much of an impact on the ideological balance of the federal judiciary as he did the first time around.

Special Guest: Jonathan H. Alder.