Biden builds judicial legacy with diversified federal courts

President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are transforming the federal courts at a blistering pace and creating an unrivaled legacy of diversity that will redefine the federal bench for a generation. Of the 97 judges confirmed by the Senate in the last two years, three quarters of them are women, and nearly half of the appointees — including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — are women of color. And while most presidents pick from a pool of existing judges, government attorneys and lawyers in private practice, Biden has cast a wider net. About one-third of Biden’s confirmed judges have experience as public defenders and a dozen are former civil rights lawyers, according to the liberal group Alliance for Justice.

That means that there are more federal judges who have seen the challenges in the court system for people with low incomes or who have experienced civil-rights or voting-rights violations, said Lisa Cylar Barrett, director of policy at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “It’s a perspective that has been sorely lacking and is much needed on the federal judiciary,” Barrett said. The 97 judges confirmed by the Senate in the last two years surpasses the 83 confirmed by this point in former President Donald Trump’s term. It nearly matches the 100 judges confirmed during President George W. Bush’s first two years in the Oval Office. So far, the Senate has confirmed Jackson, as well as 28 appellate court justices and 68 district court judges during Biden’s presidency. Just five of Biden’s appellate and district court judges are White men — 5% of the total so far. By comparison, 147 of Trump’s nominees over his full four years in office were White males, or 64% of those he elevated. “What’s most striking to me is the paucity of white males,” said Russell Wheeler, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has long tracked federal court confirmations. “The number of White males could be counted on one hand, which is so different than all the other presidents.”