New Report Showcases Biden’s Historic Judicial Legacy
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 20, 2025 – As the Biden administration comes to a close, Alliance for Justice has published a new report highlighting judicial confirmations during 2024 and across the entire Biden presidency. With 235 judges, Biden and Senate Democrats surpassed Donald Trump’s total of 234 and diversified the court like never before. Our Courts, Our Rights: Defending Justice Beyond 2024 details these advances as well as missed opportunities.
Across Biden’s 235 confirmations:
- 64% were women
- 63% were people of color
- 46% brought professional diversity to the bench, including public defenders, labor lawyers, civil rights attorneys
2024 proved no exception to the administration’s commitment to diversity. Among the 69 judges confirmed in the last year of the administration, 61% were women, 42% were people of color, and 36% were professionally diverse. Our Courts, Our Rights: Defending Justice Beyond 2024 features much more detailed breakdowns of this diversity for both 2024 and the entire administration.
The report also highlights the many “firsts” among Biden’s judicial confirmations, including:
- The first Black woman Supreme Court justice
- The first Muslim-American federal judge
- The first openly lesbian federal appeals court judge
- The first Navajo federal judge
In addition to featuring some of the standout nominees who were confirmed, the report describes the ways Senate Republicans blocked several notable, highly qualified nominees. It also lays out the challenges ahead as progressives turn to playing defense against the extremists Trump plans to nominate in his second term, including to vacancies left open by that obstruction.
Accompanying the 2024 report is Accountable to None: The Urgent Need for Supreme Court Ethics Reform. As Biden has helped transform the lower courts, the need for reform in the nation’s highest court has only grown. This special report catalogs the ever-growing list of ethics violations by Supreme Court justices and the public crisis of confidence the Court continues to ignore and deny.
Alliance for Justice Interim Co-President Keith Thirion issued the following statement:
“The Biden administration’s transformation of the courts was nothing short of historic. Alliance for Justice was proud to stand with the White House and Senate Democrats to help create a diverse federal bench. The law is stronger when interpreted by judges whose experiences reflect the people they serve. These outstanding judges will help shape our rights and our lives for years to come and serve as important guardrails for our democracy as we look to the threats ahead. For there to be equal justice for any of us, there must be equal justice for all of us, and Biden’s judges will be a hallmark of his administration. Still, there were stellar would-be judges who didn’t make it across the finish line, and we must now fight to protect those seats from extremists who are loyal to Trump’s agenda instead of the rule of law. As we celebrate our successes, we steel ourselves for the important work ahead.”
Click here to read Our Courts, Our Rights: Defending Justice Beyond 2024.
Click here to read Accountable to None: The Urgent Need for Supreme Court Ethics Reform.