President Joe Biden, with the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), has already barreled past his most recent predecessors with 97 federal judicial confirmations in the first two years of his term.
To better contextualize this number, former President Barack Obama confirmed 62 federal judges in his first two years in office, while former President Donald Trump, with the help of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), confirmed 85 judges in the second half of Trump’s term.
At the start of the year, Senate Democrats recommitted to filling the remaining vacancies on the nation’s federal courts and they still have just over 80 vacancies to go. With less than two years left in Biden’s term, it’s a steep goal to reach.
But Senate Democrats have momentum. When the Senate left for its August recess, the Biden administration had confirmed a total of 140 federal judges, many of which are already deciding impactful cases, in and out of the democracy arena. Just this week, Biden appointee, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia Sarah Geraghty used the power of her gavel to pause Georgia’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
As conservatives have packed these lower courts for years, filling federal judicial vacancies with progressive, pro-democracy judges is crucial as election and voting rights litigation picks up heading into 2024.
In terms...
By Cristina Lazo Source: SBS Canberra- based aircraft engineer Paulo Paniel acquired a thirty- year-old towbar business in 2018, which challenged him to implement systems - such as photo documenta...