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When 41-year-old gay rights lawyer Michelle Friedland was confirmed by the Senate in April to the federal bench in San Francisco, Democrats cheered that a liberal woman would become the youngest federal appeals court judge in the nation.

But when a restrictive Wisconsin voter-identification requirement was allowed to go into effect in September after the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago deadlocked 5 to 5, Democrats winced. The law later blocked by the Supreme Court would presumably have been invalidated at the appellate court if President Obama had succeeded in filling a vacancy there now nearly five years old.

With Republicans striving to seize control of the Senate in Tuesday's election, Obama's first six years in office may mark the peak of his influence on the judiciary, including the appointment of two Supreme Court justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Legal experts say it's a record of unprecedented achievements in judicial diversity. Women make up 42% of his confirmed nominees, more than double the average of his five predecessors combined, while African Americans make up 18% and Latinos 6%. Eleven openly gay judges now serve where there was only one.

"It's been quite an impressive record," said Sheldon Goldman, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who studies judicial nominations. "A large majority of his appointments approximately 60% have gone to nontraditional candidates, people who are not white males."

Supporters are heartened that his most recent appointments, such as Friedland and Pamela Harris confirmed to the appeals court in Richmond, Va. have had more progressive views and records compared with his early choices.

And they are gratified that Democrats now hold a majority on nine of the 13 appeals courts, including the crucial District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals. Democrats had the majority on only three appeals courts when Obama came to office.

But there is also a lingering disappointment that it took the Obama administration several years to prioritize judicial nominations, making it harder to catch up with vacancies.

Despite a flurry of nominations over the last year which came after Senate rules were changed to make confirmations easier there are still 63 judicial vacancies, 10 more than when Obama took office. He nominated fewer than half as many judges in his first year as President George W. Bush did.

"It was a slow start, but once they got rolling and put some muscle behind the nominees, they started to get some people through," said Caroline Fredrickson, president of the American Constitution Society, a liberal legal group. "Originally the priority was on getting the Affordable Care Act through and the nominations process took a back seat."

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Obama's best chance to influence the judiciary may be passing