This story originally appeared on NPR.

During Donald Trump’s first term, appointing federal judges became one of his greatest achievements.

Legal experts predict Trump will move quickly next year to cement and extend that legacy — and they said he will enjoy some significant advantages this time around: being able to see how his first choice performed.

“The president will have a clear pool of nominees that he already knows and is comfortable with,” said Jesse Panuccio, a former top Trump Justice Department official who is now in private law practice.

Panuccio pointed out that Trump is the first president since 1893 to serve non-consecutive terms. He said perhaps not since Grover Cleveland served in the Oval Office, “… the president will have an opportunity to see how these appointments, these appointees, have performed on the bench for years now.”

Appointees of a president do not always act according to his wishes once they have a lifetime. Now, Trump is likely to be more discerning when trying to gauge whether a nominee is likely to follow his priorities for years to come, by examining their record on the bench and their writings.

Republicans are in line to control the Senate by 53 votes, giving the Trump White House plenty of room to confirm nominees.

Russell Wheeler, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, said that if senators move to confirm judges with the same “ferocity” they displayed during the first Trump administration, Trump will have a good chance of changing the makeup of the federal courts.” quite dramatic.”

During his first four years in the White House, the Senate confirmed 234 Trump-nominated judges, including Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

Because these federal judges serve for life, and because Trump has tended to pick younger people for these jobs, “we could be looking at a Trump judge for the next generation or so,” Wheeler said.