Photo of Black justices doesn't show panel hearing Trump appeal. It's not set yet | Fact check

Gabrielle Settles, USA TODAY
Updated ·3 min read

The claim: Trump is facing an all-Black female appeals court in New York

A May 31 Threads post (direct link, archive link) shows a photo of five Black female justices posing together.

“If Trump appeals his 34 felony convictions, this is who he will face," reads the post's caption. "This is the Manhattan Appeals Court Panel. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Black women are going to single-handedly save our democracy."

The post was reposted more than 100 times in six days. The photo and claim were also reposted thousands of times on X, formerly Twitter, fueled by accounts including Brian Tyler Cohen and Hodgetwins

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Our rating: False

The panel hearing former President Donald Trump’s appeal hasn't yet been set since he can't appeal until after sentencing. The women in the picture are all justices of New York’s Appellate Division First Judicial Department, but they are just five of the 21 justices on the court who could be selected to hear Trump’s case should he appeal.

Panel in appeals case hasn't yet been set

After Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in New York, he announced that he would appeal the conviction.

The court that would handle the appeal is New York's Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Judicial Department, which has jurisdiction in the counties of New York and the Bronx. Each of the women in the picture –  Justice Bahaati E. Pitt-Burke, Justice Troy K. Webber, Presiding Justice Dianne T. Renwick, Justice Tanya R. Kennedy and Justice Marsha Michael (from left to right)– are part of the court.

But contrary to the claim, they are not the only ones. There are 21 justices that make up the court, including men and women of different ethnicities. Out of those 21 justices, four or five are selected as a panel to hear cases, according to the New York Constitution Article VI, Judiciary Section 4.

The panel hearing Trump's case hasn't yet been set since he hasn't yet appealed, said Cynthia Godsoe, a professor of law at Brooklyn Law School. He can't appeal until after his July 11 sentencing date, Reuters reported.

The process of justice selection for a panel is random, Godsoe said Cynthia Godsoe.

“The panels are randomly assigned as cases are in trial and appellate courts nationwide,” Godsoe said. “It would be highly unusual to have the five Black women as a panel, given how statistics work.”

Fact check: 'Lock her up': Trump now claims he never said or backed this. But he did. A lot

That being said, the chance is low but not impossible. The photo of Pitt-Burke, Webber, Renwick, Kennedy and Michael was taken in February 2024, when they were all randomly selected to serve on the bench for oral arguments on several cases. It was the first time in the court’s history an all African-American bench was selected to hear cases.

It's also possible, though unlikely, that Trump's team could attempt to move the appeal to another court, Godsoe noted.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

PolitiFact and The Dispatch also debunked this claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Appeals panel not set for Trump appeal, contrary to claim | Fact check

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