Biden celebrates 235 judicial confirmations — a ‘vital check on the excesses of other branches’
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Biden’s 235 judges named to the federal bench bests the number added by Donald Trump by one. With just over two weeks until he cedes the reins of the executive branch to Donald Trump, President Joe Biden says the 235 judges confirmed to the federal bench during his four years in office will serve as a bulwark against abuses from the executive and legislative branches and will represent what he described as “the best in America.”.
Joined by Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Durbin of Illinois and Senate Majority Leader — soon to be Minority Leader — Chuck Schumer of New York, Biden spoke of the record number of judicial confirmations at an East Room ceremony attended by staff and supporters to mark the milestone, which the Democratic-led upper chamber reached late last month before recessing and ending legislative work for the year.
The 235 judges, including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the highest court in the land, are the most confirmed during any four-year presidential term since Jimmy Carter served as president from 1977 to 1981. The total confirmed to the bench under Biden is just one judge more than the number confirmed by a Republican senate majority during Trump’s first term.
Unlike Trump’s overwhelmingly white and male nominees, the Biden administration has taken pains to increase the number of non-white, female and LGBT+ nominees to the federal bench during his time in office. A fact sheet release by the White House on Thursday described his nominees as having “transformed the federal bench” by making up over a quarter of all active federal judges who make the judiciary “look like the community it serves.”.
