George Mason Tops Harvard, Yale as Trump Judge Law School Source

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US Law Week

George Mason Tops Harvard, Yale as Trump Judge Law School Source

March 2, 2026, 4:45 AM EST
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/author/suzanne-monyak-23617665Suzanne Monyak
]Reporter
Email Suzanne Monyak

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/author/jacqueline-thomsen-23664319Jacqueline Thomsen
]Reporter
Email Jacqueline Thomsen


George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School unveils a statue of the justice on Oct. 4, 2018.
(Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

A Virginia law school renamed for the late Justice Antonin Scalia and known for its embrace of conservative judicial philosophies has emerged as a top feeder school to the federal bench during President Donald Trump’s second term.

Trump has tapped more graduates from George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School to be judges in his second term than from any other law school in the nation, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis of federal judiciary data on judicial appointments.

Three Scalia Law graduates were confirmed last year to federal district court judgeships, while two other alumni were announced as nominees earlier this month. If confirmed, those five Scalia Law alumni will outnumber Trump’s second-term judicial appointees from Harvard and Yale’s law schools combined.

The new appointments show the administration is starting to turn to a school historically known as being more conservative than others, and is putting less of an emphasis on elite academic credentials when it comes to picking future judges.

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To contact the reporters on this story: Suzanne Monyak at [e-mail]; Jacqueline Thomsen at [e-mail]

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Seth Stern at [e-mail]; Keith L. Alexander at [e-mail]