The Senate confirmed two more of President Biden’s nominees to the federal judiciary on Friday, bringing his total to 235 since taking office, surpassing the number of judges approved for lifetime appointments during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term.
Following Benjamin Cheeks’ confirmation to the federal district court in Southern California, Serena Murillo was confirmed to the federal district court in Central California.
Mr. Biden will end his four-year presidency having appointed one Supreme Court justice, 45 judges to federal appeals courts, 187 to district courts, and two to the Court of International Trade. His appointment of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson made history because she is the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.
“Today, we celebrate one of the most important accomplishments of this Democratic Senate and the Biden-Harris administration: the confirmation of highly qualified, independent, and evenhanded judges to the federal bench,” Sen. Dick Durbin, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. He continued: “More than one out of every four judges now serving on the judicial bench was nominated by President Biden.”
Mr. Biden has also chosen a record number of public defenders to serve as federal judges on the appeals courts, and his nominees are more diverse than those chosen by his predecessors.
Presidents have increased their focus on the judiciary in recent years, as gridlock in Congress has resulted in unilateral executive actions on a variety of issues affecting American life. However, these efforts frequently give way to legal challenges, leaving courts to rule in disputes over contentious policies.
While Mr. Biden is likely to end his presidency with more judicial appointments than Trump, he did not have the same level of success as his predecessor in establishing his mark on the Supreme Court. Jackson succeeded Justice Stephen Breyer, a member of the court’s liberal wing, after he retired in 2022.
But Trump appointed three justices to the Supreme Court: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Barrett replaced the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal member, resulting in a 6-3 conservative supermajority.
Mr. Biden also trails Trump in appointments to the 13 courts of appeals, with 45 judges approved at the end of his presidency versus 54 for Trump.
However, Trump had an advantage when he took office in 2017, inheriting 17 appellate court vacancies after the Republican-led Senate blocked then-President Barack Obama’s nominees in the final two years of his term. Mr. Biden’s presidency began with only two open seats on the courts of appeals.
With a second Trump term on the horizon, some judges who announced their retirement plans have reversed course after learning that their replacements would not be confirmed before January 3, when Republicans take control of the Senate.
Judge James Wynn of the 4th Circuit informed Mr. Biden last week that he would no longer be granted senior status, a form of semi-retirement, and the White House withdrew the nomination of his potential successor, North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park.
Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, North Carolina’s Republican senators, opposed Park’s nomination. Tillis criticized Wynn’s decision to postpone his retirement, calling it “brazenly partisan” and motivated by Trump’s election.
According to Reuters, two district court judges appointed by Democratic presidents, Judges Max Cogburn and Algenon Marbley, have also withdrawn their plans to advance to senior status in the wake of Trump’s victory.
The reversals come after Senate Democrats and Republicans reached an agreement to expedite the consideration of Mr. Biden’s district court nominees. Republican senators, with Trump’s support, had been working to slow the pace of judicial confirmations during the lame-duck session, but under the agreement, they would waive procedural roadblocks on district court nominees if Democrats did not bring four remaining appellate court nominations up for a vote.
According to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Trump will have four current or future vacancies on the courts of appeals to fill after taking office, as well as more than 30 on the district courts.