Washington In a historic move for the departing White House occupant, the Democratic-led Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s nomination as the 235th federal judge, one more than former President Donald Trump had obtained.
With Friday’s most recent confirmation, which may be his final, Biden would leave office with 187 district court judges, 45 appeals court judges, one Supreme Court justice, and two justices on the U.S. Court of International Trade.
As the gavel fell amid some cheers in the Senate chamber, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer hailed the vote as historic.
More judges have been confirmed by the majority under President Biden than any other majority in decades. He declared this to be historic. More judges have been confirmed than during the Trump administration, more than during any other government this century, and more than during any previous administration dating back decades.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Judiciary Committee, stated that the figure is quite significant. We feel so much relief.
They are the safest part of Biden’s legacy, which Trump will partially dismantle when he returns to the White House and his party takes control of the Senate next month. All will serve lifetime appointments.
According to a fact sheet released by the White House, these men and women have the authority to defend or revoke fundamental rights. President Biden is pleased with his appointment record and appreciative of the Senate’s collaboration in achieving this momentous milestone.
Biden is most proud of the kinds of justices he has selected, not just the quantity. The White House emphasized the judges’ backgrounds in immigration law, municipal law, and plaintiffs’ side work, as well as the more than 45 public defenders, more than 25 civil rights attorneys, and at least 10 workers’ attorneys among his selections.
Biden’s choices deviate from the custom of both party presidents who have tended to appoint corporate attorneys and prosecutors as judges, which was an early objective for Biden’s White House when choosing nominees.
A record number of women, Black, Latino, AANHPI, Native American, Muslim-American, and LGBTQ judges were among the demographic diversity highlights announced by the White House, along with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court and a former public defender.
Although Biden has more justices than Trump, he lags behind his predecessor in one crucial area: Trump appointed three justices to the Supreme Court, including two who shifted the court to the right, resulting in a 6-3 majority that is regarded as the most conservative in almost a century.
Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, attacked Biden’s judicial selection.
The willingness of Senate Democrats to appoint fervent fanatics to the judiciary astounded me, he remarked.
The incoming chair of the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, stated that Republicans will make sure Trump concludes his second term with more judges overall than Biden had.
Grassley told NBC News that they would boast about having 235 rather than Trump’s 234. Trump will boast about having 240 on January 20, 2029.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Republicans are unlikely to duplicate that number in the next four years, given the smaller number of seats Trump and the next GOP-controlled Senate will inherit.
Cornyn remarked, “That would be pretty impressive to beat.”
Republicans only need to be careful about filling those positions because they are clearly lifetime appointments, he added, and they don’t need to compete numerically with Biden’s term.
According to Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., Biden and Democrats don’t really care about the moment.
In an interview, he stated that it indicates that they have received one more than 234 but one fewer than 236.
After he mostly deferred to others on district court and appeals court judicial nominations during his first term, Kennedy stated that he thinks Trump may change his approach in his second term and get more engaged with lower court nominees.
He remembered that not all of Trump’s first-term choices pleased him.
In general, I think his first term’s candidates were good. According to Kennedy, I assisted in the deaths of four or five of them. Every time I did it, I discussed it with him. He always advised me to move my nominee to a different zip code if I had nominated someone who was ineligible. And I did, as did a few of my coworkers.
Blumenthal claimed that Democrats’ stance was that every available position might be filled by an unfit ideologue chosen by Trump and Republicans the following year, who he claimed would hold the position for decades.
We’ve done some excellent work over the past four years, but I’m not ready to pop the cork yet. We must hope for the best, be ready for the worst, and work to defeat nominees who are genuinely unfit. We have a lot of work to do. The outlook for the future is therefore somewhat depressing.
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