The Last Chance To Confirm Biden’s Fair and Qualified Judges
This excerpt is from a piece by Keith Thirion that originally ran in Democracy Docket on November 21, 2024.
Imagine living for the next several decades with nearly half of the 890 Article III judges in the country having been appointed by Trump, to say nothing of a full Trump majority on the Supreme Court.
The Senate cannot add to these opportunities by leaving nominees on the table this year. As senators returned post-election, there were 31 nominees who were still awaiting confirmation, including five circuit court nominees. More than half of them simply require their final floor vote, and the rest will advance quickly through the Senate Judiciary Committee, as some already have. Confirming each and every one of these nominees will bring Biden’s total to 244 judges and leave only around 38 vacancies at the start of Trump’s term.
These nominees deserve to be confirmed. Some have been waiting for over a year since their original nomination despite being eminently qualified. They will add important diversity to the federal bench, where it is very much still lacking, and they will bring important legal experience in civil rights, labor law and public defense.