President Joe Biden is setting a record pace on judicial nominees
Despite the unique demands of his office, President Joe Biden has been moving at a record pace to repair, replenish, and modernize the federal judiciary while setting historic precedent. After cringing for four years as Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell installed judges who are wholly unqualified, believe a President is above the law, or simply harbor medieval social views, we now have cause for optimism.
Biden has already been outpacing Trump in getting federal judiciary nominees confirmed. Senate Democrats have confirmed eight nominees, and an additional 14 nominees are awaiting floor votes. Not only is Biden moving faster than Trump, but he is so far proceeding faster than any President in the past 40 years, according to Brookings Institution fellow Russell Wheeler.
While there is good reason to seat qualified, fair-minded judges who uphold the rule of law on the federal bench as soon as possible, Biden’s concerns aren’t just limited to speed and numbers. Biden’s deep appreciation of diversity, both as a reflection of America and as an asset for greater success, has been on full display even in the opening months of his judicial nomination process.
On Thursday, Biden announced a sixth round of judicial nominees, which include two potentially historic confirmations. Justice Beth Robinson, Vermont’s first openly LGBTQ Supreme Court justice, would become the first openly LGBTQ woman to serve on any federal circuit court. Attorney Charlotte Sweeney would be the first openly LGBTQ federal judge in Colorado and the first openly LGBTQ woman to serve as a federal district court judge in any state west of the Mississippi, according to the White House.
These new groundbreaking picks follow the June confirmation of Zahid N. Quraishi, who became the first Muslim American federal judge in U.S. history. Biden has so far selected mostly women as well as many nominees from underrepresented communities. Biden is also altering the federal bench’s traditional makeup of former prosecutors and corporate law firm partners with many nominations of public defenders and civil rights attorneys.
Of course, it will take much more time and effort to properly de-Trumpify and diversify the federal bench, particularly with the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the new guy is moving apace, making record progress on many fronts while the former guy and his fans can now only cringe. Let there be no doubt: Biden is on it.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month