Senate Judiciary Committee Creates Clear Path for 150 Biden Judicial Confirmations


     Last week, Democrats celebrated President Biden's 100th judicial confirmation, including 69 judges to the U.S. district courts, 30 judges to the U.S. appellate courts, and Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Since then, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has secured the confirmation of five more Biden judges to district courts in Illinois, New Mexico, Oregon, the District of Columbia, and California. 105 judges have been confirmed months ahead of when President Trump reached the same landmark, a pace that at the time was itself unprecedented.

     President Biden continuing to outpace Trump and appoint judges is something the Democratic-controlled Senate can do without the Republican-controlled House and should be THE domestic policy priority for the next two years. Aside from expanding professional and personal diversity on the courts, this effort is also vital to undoing the Trump-installed conservative dominance in America's federal judiciary, which is critical to protecting American freedoms and human rights like the right to choose as well as environmental and public safety regulations that truly make America great.

     After last year's midterm elections, Leader Schumer pledged that 2023 would kick of with a fast pace of judicial nominations, and he was not lying. Aside from the aforementioned confirmations, the Senate Judiciary Committee has forwarded a whopping 31 nominations to the Senate floor-- six for the circuit courts and 25 for the district courts-- while 13 nominees await hearings. If all of these nominees are confirmed, President Biden will be on track to hit 150 judicial confirmations just a few months after he hit 100. 

     In addition to continuing to call on Majority Leader Schumer to confirm these nominees, we must also call on President Biden to continue nominating them. If we want to fully undo President Trump's damage to the judiciary, we should strive to reach 200 confirmations by the end of the year. That's what it's going to take to build back better.

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