A growing number of federal judges have announced their departure in the coming weeks President Biden
Joe Biden: Democrats say defending Trump’s ouster is “totally without merit.” A defense treaty between the United States and Israel has advantages and endangers the White House: Biden will not spend much time watching the trial of Trump’s dismissal MORE he was a juror, giving the new administration an early opportunity to begin foraying into the old ones President Trump
Donald Trump, spokesman for domination: MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell calls for DC officers defending the Capitol to be sued, Sicknick’s family honored at the US Super Bowl will meet at the Human Rights Council UN: MORE reportsuccess in filling the judiciary with conservative judges.
There are currently 57 vacancies in the federal district and courts of appeal and another 20 seats that will remain vacant in the coming months. At least 25 of those seats were announced after Biden’s inauguration on January 20th.
The outgoing group includes Emmet Sullivan, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by former President Clinton in 1994. Sullivan presided over several well-known cases during the Trump era, including persecution. of Michael Flynn accused of the former White House national security adviser had lied to the FBI about his conversations with a Russian diplomat during Trump’s transition period.
Another Clinton-appointed judge, Robert Katzmann, of the influential 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, announced on January 21 that he would leave his seat. Katzmann was also involved in several Trump-related cases. Last year he was part of a group of three judges who sided with Manhattan district attorneys in a lawsuit that Trump tried to block the prosecutor’s subpoena for his tax returns.
Both Katzmann and Sullivan will get the high-level status, allowing them to remain as judges with a lighter case load while leaving seats in Biden to occupy the Senate confirmation process.
“I think that he himself, immediately, has an incredible opportunity to improve the cause of justice, which has a tremendous opportunity to leave its mark by getting on the bench notable jurists from both a demographic and professional point of view and with a demonstrate a commitment to egalitarian justice in this country, ”said Daniel Goldberg, legal director of the progressive group Alliance for Justice.
But despite the wave of new vacancies, Biden will face an upward battle to match Trump’s success in court, in part because he inherits significantly fewer vacancies than his predecessor and has to navigate the delicate balance of a Senate from 50 to 50.
It is not uncommon for federal judges to time their outings with the change of administrations in order to ensure that their replacements will be chosen by a president who will choose someone similar ideologically. But Russell Wheeler, a Brookings Institution scholar studying the judiciary, said he believes the number of vacancies that have opened in the last months of the Trump administration and the early days of Biden is relatively low.
“I was amazed at the number of judges, including Republican nominees, who didn’t get a higher status compared to previous years,” Wheeler said. “In the twilight of the Obama administration and the twilight of the Bush administration, you usually see people start running to the exits once it’s pretty clear what the presidential outcome will be or, in the case of Republicans, try to get statute made in the hope that the Republican president may appoint his successor. “
According to Wheeler’s data, Trump has been one of the most prolific presidents of the modern era when it comes to court confirmations, filling federal banks with young, conservative judges quickly.
In four years, Trump has successfully appointed 226 judges to the federal bank, including three Supreme Court judges, 54 appellate court judges and 174 district court judges, according to the Pew Research Center.
Wheeler has found that Trump only lags behind former President Carter in terms of the total number of court appointments in the first four years of any recent president. President Reagan, who appointed four Supreme Court justices in eight years, is the only recent president to have left a bigger footprint on the high court.
Wheeler believes it will be harder for Biden to match Trump’s success in forming the judiciary. On the one hand, he argues, Biden inherits fewer high-profile vacancies.
When Trump took office in January 2017, there were 17 empty seats in the powerful appellate courts of the national circuit, located just below the Supreme Court. There are now seven current and future vacancies that Biden will have the opportunity to fill, not including the DC circuit seat that will open if Merrick Garland
Merrick Judicial Commission Brian GarlandBiden must do justice to the policy Cotton is trying to push Democrats into expanding the Supreme Court. The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – Cheney maintains the lead position; Stop punishing MORE to Greene is confirmed as Attorney General.
Wheeler also noted that Republicans in Trump and the Senate have made court confirmations one of their top priorities, something Biden and his upper house colleagues may not be able to repeat given the ambitious legislative agenda. of the new administration.
“I wouldn’t expect to see the courts revolutionized after four years, and of course, if Republicans regain the Senate in 2022, it will be more serious,” Wheeler said.
But progressives pushing the new administration to focus on the judiciary argue that the fate of Biden’s political plans will largely depend on judges hearing the legal challenges they are sure to follow.
“The advancement of so many policy issues will not matter if there are no judges in the federal bank who give adequate effect to the critical legislation,” Goldberg said. “And whatever legislation is passed, whether it’s civil rights legislation, legislation that protects workers, we need federal judges, the back, to make sure these statutes are properly enforced and enforced as Congress wanted.”
To that end, Goldberg said, Senate Democrats appear to be taking the judiciary more seriously than in years past.
“Clearly they are ready to prioritize this issue like never before,” he said.