As President Joe Biden makes a last-ditch effort to confirm judicial nominees before his term ends, he is on pace to have appointed more federal judges of color than any president before him.
On Monday, the Senate confirmed Biden’s judicial nominee for the Northern District of Georgia, Tiffany Johnson, making her the 40th Black woman he has appointed to lifetime federal judges — more than any president in a single term.
Overall, about 60% of Biden’s 233 appointees are people of color, according to figures the White House shared with NBC News. Benjamin Cheeks and Serena Raquel Murillo, two more nominees for U.S. District Judge, are awaiting Senate confirmation after the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced their nominations on Thursday. If Cheeks is approved, Biden will have appointed 63 Black federal judges, the most of a presidency of any length, according to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt said in an emailed statement that Biden “is proud to have strengthened the judiciary by making it more representative of the country as a whole, and that legacy will have an impact for decades to come .”
“Even before taking office, President Biden signaled to the Senate that he wanted to ensure that people who have been historically excluded from our judiciary” are included, said Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the Fair Courts Program and an advisor to the Leadership Conference. on civil and human rights.
“The research shows that if you have more judges with different perspectives because they have worked on different types of issues or come from different communities, it improves decision-making and certainly the trust that communities have in these institutions. . So it is very important to ensure that we have fair judges at all levels.”
Barack Obama appointed 26 Black female judges for life during his two terms, and Donald Trump appointed two Black female judges to the federal bench during his first term.
Jimmy Carter appointed 37 black lifetime justices in his single term. Both Obama and Bill Clinton each appointed 62 black judges over the course of their two terms. If Cheeks is confirmed, Biden would improve their record by one, according to the Leadership Conference.
These figures include multiracial judges and include those appointed to multiple courts under the same president.
Senate Democrats vowed to confirm as many Biden nominees as possible before Trump takes office in January and Republicans take control of the Senate. They’ve confirmed dozens since Election Day, but these circuit nominees are in limbo amid some opposition from both Democrats and Republican senators.
In November, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DY, wrote in a post on X that “this Senate will continue working to confirm more of President Biden’s outstanding judicial nominees.”
In an interview, Marge Baker, executive vice president of People For the American Way, a national progressive organization focused on combating far-right extremism, said it was critical that the remaining nominees be confirmed.
“As pleased as we are with the quality and quantity of nominees confirmed to date, these circuit court nominees are also very important,” Baker said. The four circuit judges in limbo are Adeel Abdullah Mangi of New Jersey, nominated to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals; Julia M. Lipez of Maine, 1st Circuit; Karla M. Campbell of Tennessee, 6th Circuit; and Ryan Young Park of North Carolina, 4th Circuit.
“These courts make decisions that affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people,” Baker added. “They decide questions about voting rights, about consumer rights, about worker rights, about antitrust laws, about climate change, about abortion. There’s just a whole range of issues where these appellate courts are often the final decision makers.”
Biden has long set a goal during his time in office to reform the predominantly white and male federal judiciary by appointing judges from diverse professional and demographic backgrounds. He has succeeded, confirming a record number of former public defenders, civil rights attorneys or attorneys representing employees. According to the White House, more than half of his appointments are women, and his appointments include several LGBTQ judges and judges from various racial and ethnic minority groups.
Biden made history by appointing Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to the US Supreme Court. Dozens of his appointments are responsible for various ‘firsts’.
“Biden has been a leader when it comes to appointing Black judges,” said Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington-based think tank. “The beauty of this is that these appointments will have long-term consequences, at least in terms of representation. This shows the public that the inclusion of black judges must be natural and regular.”
Experts now say the stakes are high as these appointments could influence judicial decisions during Trump’s second term.
Elliot Mincberg, a Supreme Court expert and counsel for the People For the American Way, said Biden-appointed judges “have had a tremendous impact on improving justice for Americans across the country.”
Zwarensteyn called it “a great and often undiscussed part” of Biden’s legacy.
“He really took it to what I would say the next level in terms of administrations that have done this.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
