America Needs A New Judiciary Act

     President Biden has made the judiciary a priority. With President Trump having appointed more than 230 dangerous right-wing white guys as federal judges, President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are doing their part to fill all vacancies in the federal courts. Instead of mostly white, mostly male corporate attorneys and prosecutors, Biden is appointing civil rights attorneys, voting rights activists, and public defenders with a special focus on racial and gender diversity.

     Reform has already come into play. In his first 100 days, President Biden appointed a bipartisan commission of academics to study potential reforms to the Supreme Court, including the possibilities of expanding the court to include 13 justices and instituting term limits, among other things. However, the Supreme Court is not the only judiciary at the federal level that could use reform.

     One notable example was in 1978, when President Jimmy Carter signed the Omnibus Judgeship Act of 1978, creating 152 new judge positions across the nation, all of which Carter was able to fill. Many of these judges remain on the bench with senior status to this day, and Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were both first appointed to the federal bench under this law. Carter appointed 262 judges during his single term in office, a record that has yet to be surpassed.

     There are currently 870 federal judge positions. At the current rate, which is now the fastest in modern presidential history, we are on track to undo the Trump administration's damage to the judicial branch. A new judgeship act could allow President Biden an opportunity to make his mark in this arena by creating 100 to 200 more positions to handle more cases and create a more fair criminal justice system.

     The commission President Biden created will make recommendations. We need to act on these, as well. Presidents Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Harrison, Coolidge, Roosevelt, Carter, and Bush Sr., among others, have all made structural changes to the courts with judiciary acts. The GOP's argument that doing so today would be unconstitutional is outrageous and offensive to anyone with the slightest knowledge of history.

     America needs a new Judiciary Act: only the Senate can make this happen.