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MistyCee The 11th Circuit has a total of 20 current judges. The 11 active judges include six Trump-appointed judges plus the Chief Judge who was appointed by George W. Bush. There are also 9 senior (retired) judges. There is one vacancy.
The case on appeal will be heard by a randomly-selected board of three judges. The best explanation of what to expect from this appeal is described at the website electoral-vote.com on September 9:
When the appeal is heard by the Eleventh Circuit, three judges will be chosen at random for the job, with no distinction between "active" and "senior" status. Currently, the circuit includes appointees from Gerald Ford (1), Jimmy Carter (1), Ronald Reagan (1), George H.W. Bush (3), Bill Clinton (3), George W. Bush (1), Barack Obama (4) and Trump (6). That's 6 Trump judges out of 20, and 12 Republican-appointed judges our of 20. That puts the former president's odds of drawing at least two of his own appointees at just 21.6%. His odds of drawing at least two Republicans are 64.8%. If you assume that his appointees are in the bag for him, well, he's probably not going to be saved in that way. And his past lack of success in front of his own judges runs contrary to that assumption. If you assume that Republican appointees are all in the bag for him, then Trump's chances improve a fair bit. However, that also seems a big assumption, especially when we start talking about appointees of Gerald Ford and Bush the father.
Regardless of the ruling, it seems certain to be appealed to the US Supreme Court, which will be forced to rule on whether a former President's Executive Privilege overrides the current President's Executive Privilege.
