President Biden is stocking the federal judiciary with liberal judges at a faster pace than former President Trump filled the bench with conservatives, as he tries to appease a progressive base unhappy that he abandoned a plan to pack the Supreme Court.

The Senate has confirmed 40 of his judicial nominees this year, including 11 judges on the powerful federal courts of appeals. In 2017, the Senate confirmed 19 of Mr. Trump‘s judicial nominees, including 12 on the courts of appeals.

View Comments (0)

Mr. Biden has nominated 73 judges, one more than Mr. Trump in 2017. Among them are 21 former public defenders and 16 former civil rights lawyers.

A major difference is that Mr. Trump appointed Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, in his first year, while Mr. Biden has not yet had a vacancy to fill on the high court. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, 83, has resisted a campaign by progressives urging him to retire, and Mr. Biden‘s commission to study reforms of the Supreme Court didn’t take a position on adding seats, disappointing liberals.

“He‘s disappointed the progressive wing of the party, and he‘s not been enthusiastic about adding seats to the [Supreme] Court,” said Russell Wheeler, a Brookings Institution specialist on the judiciary. “It’s possible that one way he’s thought to placate that wing of the party is to make a lot of nominations of highly diverse nominees. Finding White males among his nominees is not an easy task…”

Mr. Biden‘s judicial nominees include 53 women (73% of the total), 20 Black Americans (27%), 15 Hispanics (20%), and 13 Asian American Pacific Islanders (18%)…

Part of Mr. Biden‘s success in getting his judges confirmed has been to focus on appointments in states with no Republican senators, Mr. Wheeler said…

Despite Mr. Biden‘s early success on judges, Mr. Trump‘s influence on the courts will be felt for decades. He appointed 54 federal appellate judges in four years, one short of the 55 appointed by President Obama appointed in eight years. Further, Mr. Trump “flipped” the balance of several appeals courts to Republican-appointee majorities.

Mr. Trump also swung the Supreme Court to a strong 6-3 conservative majority, appointing Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. All of them were age 55 or younger when confirmed to the lifetime terms.

At the start of 2021, Mr. Trump had appointed 28% of the 816 active judges serving in the three main levels of the federal court system.

What do you think? Share in the comments!

(Excerpt from The Washington Times. Photo Credit: Getty Images)