Thread by @jbendery

Good morning! ☕️

It's that time of year again... to look back on what a president has done to reshape our nation's courts.

Biden has done a lot. huffpost.com/entry/joe-bide…

For starters, in his first year in office, Biden has confirmed more people to lifetime seats on federal courts than any president in decades.

Biden has confirmed 40 *lifetime* federal judges this year.

That breaks down to 11 appeals court judges and 29 district court judges.

For some context, Trump had confirmed a total of 18 by this point.

Here's another way of looking at it.

Total # of confirmed US appeals court + district court judges in first year in office (all lifetime posts):

Biden: 40
Trump: 18
Obama: 12
GWB: 28
Clinton: 27
GHWB: 15
Reagan: 40
Carter: 31

More than sheer numbers, though, the diversity of Biden’s nominees is a *huge* departure from the prototypical white, male corporate lawyers almost always tapped for lifetime federal judgeships.

Instead of just corporate lawyers and prosecutors, Biden's judges include public defenders, voting rights lawyers + union organizers.

Instead of just white guys, Biden's judges include Native American women, Black women, Korean Americans, LGBTQ folks + Muslim Americans.

Of Biden's 40 judges confirmed:

- 32 are women
- 27 are people of color
- 21 are women of color
- 27 have professionally diverse backgrounds.

Fifteen are former public defenders. huffpost.com/entry/joe-bide…

Why does this matter?

Diversity of judges is “critical” because it brings different perspectives into courtrooms + constricts biases relating to gender and ethnicity that can undermine justice, says Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor.

It also improves confidence in the courts when judges reflect the people they serve, says Tobias.

For example, it is vital to have Native American judges, esp in Indian Country and the West, where federal courts substantially affect the lives of so many Native Americans.

There have only ever been six Native Americans who have been federal judges in the 230-year history of the U.S. courts. Thousands of judges in that time.

Three of those six are Biden nominees. huffpost.com/entry/native-a…

The White House and Schumer have been flying through judicial confirmations for a couple of reasons.

They want to offset the massive number of conservative and ideological judges that Trump confirmed.

They also know they may not be able to do this for long.

Democrats have a razor-thin majority in the Senate, and they could lose it in Nov. 2022.

If Republicans win back the Senate, based on their obstruction of Obama’s court picks when they controlled the Senate, there’s no reason to believe they'd treat Biden's picks any different.

The looming questions for Biden are 1) how much is his White House willing to work with/wait for Republican senators to agree on judicial nominees, and 2) how aggressive is Biden prepared to be in the event that GOPers won’t work with him.

To date, all of Biden's confirmed judges are from states with two Democratic senators.

At some point, he'll need to confirm judges in states with two GOP senators. Does he let them drag out and stall the process like they did with Obama? Or does he plow ahead without them?

John Collins Jr., a GWU law professor, says plow the hell ahead.

“Acting as though there needs to be (or will ever be) agreement between the White House and [Republican] senators like Roger Marshall or John Kennedy on judicial nominees is a waste of everyone’s time."

Collins also reminds of the possibility of a SCOTUS seat opening next year.

"The White House and Senate should operate as though they’re going to have a confirmation battle over the summer and fill as many seats ahead of time as possible.” huffpost.com/entry/joe-bide…