A once-widely-bipartisan bill that would have been the first significant expansion of the federal judiciary since 1990 was vetoed by President Joe Biden on Monday. The bill would have added 66 more judges to the nation’s understaffed federal courts.
Many members of both parties initially backed the JUDGES Act, which would have added trial court judges to 25 federal district courts across 13 states, including California, Florida, and Texas, in six waves every two years until 2035.
In a rare move, hundreds of judges appointed by both party presidents openly endorsed the plan, claiming that since Congress last enacted legislation to fully expand the court, federal caseloads had swelled by more than 30%.
However, two days prior to the bill’s passage in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on December 12, the departing Democratic president fulfilled his promise of veto.
In a statement to the Senate on Monday, Biden publicly rejected the bill, stating that before we create permanent judgeships for life-tenured judges, these considerations regarding need and allocation must be thoroughly examined and addressed in order to ensure the efficient and effective administration of justice.
The bill’s proponents had planned to circumvent lawmakers’ long-standing worries about establishing new vacancies that could be filled by a president of an opposing party by spreading out the additional judgeships over three presidential administrations.
In August, the Senate, which is governed by Democrats, unanimously approved it. However, the law remained in the Republican-controlled House and was only brought up for a vote following Donald Trump’s victory in the election on November 5th, which gave him the opportunity to choose the first 25 judges.
Top House Democrats accused their Republican colleagues of breaking a key promise of the legislation by allowing members to adopt the bill before it was clear who would select the first round of judges. As a result, they also started to forsake the plan.
“The bill would have added judgeships in states where senators have sought to hold open existing vacancies,” Biden noted in his address to the Senate, implying that the senators’ stated worries about high caseloads are not the real driving force behind the bill’s current passing.
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