Joe Biden just nailed it
In a palpable reversal of Donald Trump’s practice of picking almost exclusively white men for judicial appointments, on Tuesday President Biden announced his intent to nominate what he termed a “trailblazing slate” of judicial nominees. Biden’s picks include male and female persons of color, Muslim Americans and one Asian American and Pacific Islander for judicial appointments to federal courts and to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
The White House said the eleven nominees are each attorneys who’ve excelled in the legal field and are actually qualified for the positions they are nominated for. “This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession,” the President said in an official statement to the press. “Each is deeply qualified and prepared to deliver justice faithfully under our Constitution and impartially to the American people—and together they represent the broad diversity of background, experience, and perspective that makes our nation strong.”
The White House said President Biden’s judicial choices reflect his belief that the federal courts should encompass the “full diversity of the American people” in background and professional experience. Trump, on the other hand, leaned heavily on white men to fill vacancies. More often than not Trump’s principal concern was the political leanings of the nominees, particularly whether or not those nominees were loyal to him. Such restrictions on gender, race and loyalties made for meagre and underqualified choices.
President Biden’s group includes three Black women tapped for circuit court vacancies. One candidate would, if confirmed, be the first Muslim American federal judge in US history, another would be the first AAPI woman to ever serve on the US District Court for the District of Columbia, and a third would be the first woman of color to ever serve as a federal judge for the District of Maryland.
What makes these appointments particularly stunning is President Biden is an old school politician in his late 70s. Despite this he has once again demonstrated that he is capable of progressive thinking. This lateral-thinking ability, demonstrated by the President, is usually the hallmark of a younger person, and proves yet again that the President is equal to the challenges ahead. And he’s doing it without a single golf game, without belittling or insulting anyone, without endless indulgences in self-glorification. President Biden quietly and efficiently gets on with the job, and leaves the scrapping and the backbiting and the naysaying to all the little people who are angry about his success and jealous of the ease with which he achieves it. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.