President Biden continues to nail it on judges
On Friday, the White House Briefing Room released a statement entitled, “President Biden Names Twenty-Sixth Round of Judicial Nominees.” As with past judicial nomination announcements, the mainstream press has largely avoided covering it, as if it’s just some wonkish government business as usual. But the fact is this announcement is a big deal—to the Biden administration, to Democrats, and to the future of the United States.
President Biden named eight new federal judicial nominees and announced his intent to nominate nine more. This new announcement marks Biden’s 26th round of nominees for federal judicial positions and his 13th slate of nominations in 2022, and it means the total number of announced federal judicial nominees now stands at 143.
As impressive as these figures are, this announcement marks a continuation past a historic milestone. On August 8, the Senate confirmed 75 Biden-nominated judges to federal courts—more than any other President since John F. Kennedy. That number has already edged up to 78 as of August 26 and is expected to keep climbing as we head into the fall.
As the White House is always sure to point out, Biden’s picks are “extraordinarily qualified, experienced, and devoted to the rule of law and our Constitution,” attributes that can no longer be taken for granted. In addition, Biden has used each nomination opportunity to fulfill his promise to ensure that the courts reflect America’s diversity, which he calls “one of our greatest assets as a country.”
The most notable example of Biden’s commitment to diversity in judicial nominations is his choice of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who became the first Black woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court following a bipartisan confirmation vote. Biden is also responsible for having chosen the first Muslim American federal judge in U.S. history, among many other groundbreaking picks. Biden has been committed to diversifying the federal bench also by nominating public defenders and civil rights attorneys instead of only former prosecutors and corporate law firm partners.
The delicious irony underlying this story is that much of Biden’s achievement is attributable to the shortsighted, greedy former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Myopic Mitch ended the Senate tradition of allowing senators to object to nominees in their states with “blue slips,” and he changed the Senate rules to limit debate on circuit and district court judges, reducing post-cloture debate time from 30 hours to two hours.
For Biden to continue transforming the federal judiciary to reflect quality, experience, adherence to the rule of law, and diversity, the Democrats must keep control of the Senate in 2023 and beyond. This is one of so many reasons why it’s critical to get out the vote in the midterms this November. The future of our country depends on it.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month