The expected vote Tuesday will mark a milestone for the president and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who are outpacing Trump at confirming federal judges.
WASHINGTON — The Democratic-led Senate is poised to confirm President Joe Biden’s 100th federal judge on Tuesday, marking a milestone for the president and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The two Democrats have made it a priority to reshape U.S. courts with judges who tend to be younger, liberal and more diverse — both in terms of race and ethnicity, as well as professional experience — than the current bench, a project aided by Democrats expanding their Senate majority in the 2022 midterm election.
On Monday, the Senate confirmed Cindy Chung to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, making her the first Asian American to serve on that court. On Tuesday, it is set to vote on Gina Méndez-Miró to be a district court judge in Puerto Rico, who passed a key test vote that indicates she has the necessary support to be confirmed and will become Biden’s 100th confirmed judge.
She will be Biden’s 69th confirmed district court judge. He has also secured Senate approval for 30 circuit court judges and one Supreme Court justice: Ketanji Brown Jackson.
“Appointing 100 judges has already had a major impact on the judiciary — and it puts President Biden on track to name a transformational 200 judges before the end of this term,” Ron Klain, Biden’s former chief of staff, who departed last week, told NBC News. “Just as important as the quantity of judges is their quality, professional background and diversity. President Biden’s history-making contribution to judicial appointments isn’t just ‘breaking the mold’ of prior federal judicial picks — it’s making a whole new one.”
Biden and Democrats are outpacing former President Donald Trump and the Republican-led Senate — at this juncture, Trump had secured 85 judges. He left office with a staggering 234 new judges, the most of any president in his first four years since Jimmy Carter, thrilling the right and leaving an indelible mark on the courts with young conservative judges poised to serve for generations. Trump’s three Supreme Court justices helped to overturn Roe v. Wade last summer, a major breakthrough for opponents of abortion.
Democrats took power in 2021 determined to counter-balance that trend, picking a slate of judges seen as more liberal and bringing a different kind of experience: Biden has picked unusually high numbers of public defenders, civil rights lawyers and labor lawyers compared to his predecessors from both parties.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Biden’s judicial nominees are “radicals.”
“It’s no secret that I was not a fan of the judges Barack Obama appointed,” he said Monday. “But Obama’s nominees look positively moderate and reasonable compared to the zealots the Biden administration has put forward.”
Democrats stick together for Biden’s judges
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced 24 new Biden-picked judges, many on a narrow party-line basis, setting them up for floor votes. The committee, chaired by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., plans to meet to advance more judges this week.
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Democrats on judges. Last month, Charnelle Bjelkengren, a Biden nominee to be a district court judge in Washington, failed to answer basic questions about the Constitution from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., including what Article II says. And Michael Delaney, a Biden nominee for the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has faced some criticism from the left over his role as a private lawyer representing a private school that was sued by the family of a girl who was sexually assaulted on campus.
Durbin said Monday he plans to move forward with both nominees.
Confirming judges requires a simple majority in the Senate. Many of Biden’s judges have received some Republican support. Plenty of others have passed with only Democratic votes, earning no support from GOP senators who prefer judges with a narrower and “textualist” view of constitutional interpretation.