WASHINGTON – Well. The Democrats got beat up on Election Day.
Next year, Donald Trump will be in the White House, Republicans will control the Senate, and it appears Republicans will control the House of Representatives as well.
That gives Democrats a very tight window — the year-end lame duck session — to squeeze out every last drop of their power while Joe Biden is still in the White House and their party still, albeit barely , controls the Senate. The most obvious thing they can do is focus on confirming more of Biden’s judges, as these are lifetime posts and these people will be making decisions that affect millions of people decades after Trump or Biden arrive.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is already calling for her party to take action on this when the Senate reconvenes next week.
“Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer should use every minute of the year-end legislative session to confirm federal judges and key regulators — none of whom can be removed by the next president,” Warren wrote. in an op-ed on Thursday.
Progressive legal advocacy groups are similarly urging Schumer to step on the accelerator and confirm as many of Biden’s judges as possible. If that means keeping the Senate in session on Fridays, when it is normally absent, or over the weekend, then so be it.
“Given the outcome of the election, the reality is that we now have a rapidly closing window to confirm well-qualified, fair judges who will protect our rights and serve as one of the final guardrails in enforcing the laws of our country and the constitution. ” Maggie Jo Buchanan, executive director of Demand Justice, said in a statement Thursday.
“As Vice President Harris said yesterday, ‘This is not the time to raise our hands. Now is the time to roll up our sleeves,” she said. “Even one judge can make a difference.”
Another group, People For the American Way, launched a new platform called Resist Project 2025 to mobilize activists against Trump’s efforts to undermine democracy. The first priority is to organize resistance to the Trump administration’s attempts to revamp the courts.
“Confirm all of Biden’s judicial nominees now,” reads the first point in the group’s statement announcing the new initiative.
Seventeen of Biden’s nominees are currently awaiting a vote in the Senate and eight are awaiting reporting from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Three others are awaiting a committee hearing.
Schumer and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate majority whip, will decide how Democrats move forward. HuffPost reached out to both to get a sense of how aggressive they will be in moving Biden’s latest batch of jurors.
“We have two ready for next week,” said Schumer spokesman Alex Nguyen.
“Sen. Durbin is committed to confirming every potential judicial nominee before the end of this Congress – plain and simple,” said Durbin spokesperson Emily Hampsten. “We will continue to hold nomination hearings and markups to move nominees through the committee. He will not set the floor schedule, but will, as he has for the past four years, insist on prioritizing judge time.”
Their comments fail to convey the urgency that groups like Demand Justice are looking for. Part of the reason may be that Democrats face the same challenges in confirming judges that they have faced for months: a razor-thin majority and opposition to some of Biden’s controversial nominees from Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Manchin from West Virginia.
Manchin, who is retiring from the Senate this year, declared in March that he would not vote for any of Biden’s judicial picks if it did not have the support of at least one Republican. That created a huge headache for Schumer in a Senate that currently consists of 47 Democrats, 49 Republicans and four Independents, who are generally aligned with Democrats.
But the West Virginia senator, who absolutely loves media attention, may have made his statement for that very purpose. In September he broke his own rule and voted to proceed one of Biden’s judges, Kevin Ritz, despite receiving no Republican support.
A spokesman for Manchin did not respond to a request for comment Friday on whether he is willing to vote for any of Biden’s judicial nominees in the lame duck unless at least one Republican senator supports them.
Some Republicans are completely unwilling to cooperate. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is already trying to dissuade more moderate members in his caucus from voting for any of Biden’s remaining judicial nominees.
“Don’t confirm Biden’s judges,” Lee said on social media Thursday. “Now it’s Trump’s turn. No nonsense for Biden.”
There are only a handful of Republican senators who have consistently voted to confirm at least some of Biden’s judicial picks. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is one of them. He is often the only Republican to vote to remove some of Biden’s nominees from committee.
Graham’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether he plans to back judicial nominees in the lame duck he backed before the November election.
Biden is winding down his presidency with 213 confirmed-for-life federal judges under his belt. That is five fewer than Trump had at that point in his first term. To match Trump’s final number of confirmed judges, Biden would need to confirm 21 more before the year is out. It’s possible he can, but unlikely.
