LA Times: Latinos don’t see themselves fully reflected in Biden’s judicial picks
Issues
This excerpt is from a piece that originally ran on August 30, 2022.
Rakim Brooks, president of the liberal Alliance for Justice, praised Biden’s record so far on judicial nominees.
He “recognized the courts were unreflective of the country,” he said. Most judges were white men who worked as corporate attorneys or as prosecutors, he said.
Biden’s White House has looked for well-qualified attorneys who have represented unions, consumers, criminal defendants and civil rights plaintiffs.
Brooks said Senate Democrats will need to press hard to confirm several dozen of Biden’s nominees before the midterm elections, and then hope they can retain control of the Senate.
During Obama’s last two years in office, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked most of his court nominees, including Judge Merrick Garland, Obama’s choice for a Supreme Court vacancy.
If the Republicans win control of the Senate this fall, Brooks said, Biden’s bid to reshape the federal courts “will grind to a halt.”