The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Thomas Kirsch in a 51-44 vote to fill Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, a move that ensures the bench will continue to be the only all-white federal appeals court in the country.

Kirsch, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Indiana and a former Winston & Strawn partner, is the 54th Article III judge appointed to a federal appeals court by President Donald Trump. Trump trails only Jimmy Carter in the number of appellate confirmations; Carter tapped 56 of the judges by this point in his term.

Thomas Kirsch in 2013, then a partner with Winston & Strawn. Credit: Handout.