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Joe Biden has cemented his legacy on the federal bench after Senate Democrats raced to confirm more than 200 nominees for lifetime appointments to courts across the US, surpassing the number of Donald Trump during his first presidency.
The number of Biden’s judicial nominees reached 235 when Congress concluded its latest session last week, surpassing the 234 federal judges confirmed by Trump during his first term. They were the most judges appointed by the president in one four-year term since the 1980s. Biden said in a statement.
As the Biden presidency approaches, Democrats The Senate — tasked with confirming federal judges — has pushed to secure as many confirmations as it can before it takes control of Congress and the White House goes to Republicans next month.
They hope that this latest run will come against a wave of judicial confirmations during Trump’s first term that changed America’s courts for good, tilting the courts at all levels to the right.
Trump’s nomination of three Supreme Court the justices also tipped the balance of power on the nation’s most powerful bench, splitting it 6-3 between conservative and liberal justices.
A majority of the Supreme Court has issued rulings that have changed American society, including overturning a decision affirming the constitutional right to abortion – which has empowered right-leaning judges in the lower courts, many chosen by Trumpto govern in favor of fixed causes.
The growing emboldened of America’s juries along with a worsening political climate has turned the election into a critical limit on presidential power. Judges at all levels have the opportunity to assess challenges to laws and regulations, providing a critical analysis of conflict strategies.
The last-minute push by Democrats, which began after Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ election loss in November, angered Trump. He call Senate to block Biden’s judicial nomination: “Democrats are trying to pack the Courts with Radical Left Judges on their way out the door.”
“There has been a growing bias in the appointment of federal judges,” said Paul Butler, a professor at the Georgetown University Law School. The Republican Party is leading the way in judicial elections — and Biden has taken a page out of that playbook, Butler added.
Biden’s nominations also reflect their diversity, including what he described as “a record number of judges with backgrounds and experiences that have been overlooked”.
About two-thirds of confirmed judges are women and people of color. Biden has appointed more black women to US circuit courts than all previous presidents combined, and his only Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, was the first woman on the Supreme Court.
“Biden is focused on fixing decades where people other than straight white men weren’t considered for the bench,” Butler said.
Biden also nominated a record number of public defenders, more than 45, as well as civil rights lawyers – at least 10 and more than 25, respectively – for the federal bench.
“It’s so important to a thriving, multiracial democracy that we have judges who not only look like the rest of us, but who have learned and practiced their jobs,” says Lena Zwarenstein, executive director of Fair Judiciary. to understand how laws affect people’s lives,” said Lena Zwarensteyn, executive director of the justice system. program at the Human Rights and Human Rights Leadership Conference, a human rights group.
The pendulum is set to swing back again. A new round of conservative appointments is expected once Trump returns to the White House next month and Republicans take control of the Senate.
“I’m very proud of the way the Senate Republicans have worked as a team with President Trump to create federal agencies,” John Thune, the newly elected Republican Senate leader, said earlier this year. “I look forward to working with him to reduce our efforts in the next administration.”
