Welcome to the Wednesday, May 7, 2025, Brew.
By: Lara Bonatesta
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Trump makes his first judicial nomination of his second term
- Vermont voters to decide on collective bargaining and right-to-work laws in 2026
- Voters in Cameron County, Texas, approve local ballot measure to create city of Starbase
Trump makes his first judicial nomination of his second term
On May 1, President Donald Trump (R) announced that he would nominate Whitney Hermandorfer to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, marking his first judicial nomination since he assumed office.
If confirmed, Hermandorfer will replace Judge Jane Stranch. Former President Barack Obama (D) appointed Stranch in 2009, and the Senate confirmed her in 2010. In January 2024, Stranch announced that she would assume senior status after the Senate confirms her successor.
Trump’s first federal judicial nomination came later in his second term than in his first—Justice Neil Gorsuch’s nomination to the United States Supreme Court on Jan. 31, 2017. At this point in his first term, Trump had made two judicial nominations.
Compared to recent presidents, Trump announced the nomination of his second term further into his presidency (102 days) than former President Joe Biden’s (D) first nomination in 2021 (89 days) and Obama’s first nomination in 2009 (56 days).
Trump inherited fewer judicial vacancies at the start of his second term than his first—108 in 2017, versus 40 in 2025.
According to the New York Times’ Carl Hulse, “The president starts his second term with far less opportunity to install judicial picks than he did eight years ago, when he was handed more than 100 vacancies after Senate Republicans stalled President Barack Obama’s court picks during the last two years of his term.”
Biden and Trump appointed more judges in their first terms than any other president since Ronald Reagan (R). Biden appointed 235. Trump appointed 234 in his first term.
Since 1981, presidents have made an average of 201 appointments throughout a term.
There are currently 46 vacancies (or 5.3%) out of 870 active Article III judicial positions. Article III judges serve on courts authorized by Article III of the Constitution, including the Supreme Court, Circuit Courts of Appeal, District Courts, and Court of International Trade.
According to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, there are 15 upcoming vacancies in the federal judiciary, where judges have announced their intentions to leave active judicial status.
Three of 179 U.S. Appeals Court positions and 42 of 677 U.S. District Court positions are vacant. None of the nine U.S. Court of International Trade positions are vacant. Click here to see our federal vacancy count from May 1.
To learn more about the president’s judicial nominees, click here. Also, click here to listen to our new episode of On the Ballot about Trump’s judicial nominations.
Vermont voters to decide on collective bargaining and right-to-work laws in 2026
On Nov. 3, 2026, Vermont voters will decide on a state constitutional amendment that would give workers the right to join a union and bargain collectively with their employer.
Proposal 3 would allow workers to negotiate “wages, hours, and working conditions and to protect their economic welfare and safety in the workplace.” Proposal 3 would also prohibit the creation of right-to-work laws, or laws that prohibit employees from being required to join or financially support a union.
Currently, Illinois, Hawaii, Missouri, and New York have state constitutional rights to collective bargaining. In 2022, Illinois voters approved Amendment 1 with nearly 59% of the vote. This amendment also preempts right-to-work laws.
Vermont would become the fifth state to establish a constitutional right to collective bargaining and the second to include a provision banning right-to-work laws. Currently, 26 states have right-to-work laws. In 2024, Michigan became the first state to repeal such a law in 58 years. Before that, the last state to repeal a right-to-work law was Indiana in 1965. In 2012, Indiana lawmakers enacted a new right-to-work law.
Vermont voters have approved every constitutional amendment before them since 1986, when they rejected the Equal Rights Regardless of Sex Amendment. Since 1986, Vermont voters have approved seven constitutional amendments.
During the 2024 session, the Senate passed Proposal 3 unanimously (29-0), and the House passed it 129-8. In the 2025 session, the Senate again passed the proposal unanimously on March 20, and the House passed it 125-15 on May 1. Democrats and Senate Republicans supported the amendment. In the House, Republicans were divided 35-15. All independents and members of the Vermont Progressive Party voted in favor.
House Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Chittenden 16) said, “This constitutional amendment is about standing up for what is right and paving the way for future generations to come.”
Rob Roper, former head of the Vermont Republican Party, said, “This so-called ‘right to collectively bargain’ effectively strips, in key cases, one’s right to individually bargain on one’s own behalf. That’s not a good thing.”
Another constitutional amendment, Proposal 4, could also appear on the 2026 ballot. The proposed amendment says that “the government must not deny equal treatment under the law on account of a person’s race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or national origin.”
The Legislature approved Proposal 4 in the 2024 session. Both chambers must approve it again in 2025 or 2026 to put the measure on the ballot.
Click here to learn more about Proposal 3. Click here to learn about Vermont’s 2026 ballot measures.
Voters in Cameron County, Texas, approve local ballot measure to create city of Starbase
Ballotpedia covers a selection of the thousands of local ballot measures that voters across the country decide every year.
One measure that we have chosen to feature this year created the city of Starbase, Texas. What makes Starbase interesting is that it is the home of SpaceX, the American space technology corporation Elon Musk founded in 2002.
We first wrote about this measure in our Feb 26 edition of the Daily Brew. Here’s an update.
On May 3, voters approved the “Establish City of Starbase Initiative” 97.25%-2.75%. The vote was 212 Yes to six No.
The measure changed the unincorporated village of Starbase into a Type C general law municipality – meaning it has 201 to 4,999 inhabitants and less than two square miles of surface area – with a commission form of government comprising a mayor and two commissioners.
In 2024, Ballotpedia covered two other local ballot measures that created new municipalities. The first created the city of Mountain House in San Joaquin County, California, and the other created the city of Mulberry in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Voters approved the measure in California 90.8%-9.2%. The measure in Georgia was approved 57%-43%.
Click here to learn more about the measure in Starbase, Texas.