Senate Democrats celebrate Biden’s 100th judicial confirmation, outpacing Trump

Reported by Washington Times:

Senate Democrats celebrated Tuesday the confirmation of President Biden’s 100th judge, touting the speed in placing progressive, diverse judges on the federal bench.

“Senate Democrats have focused intensely on expanding the diversity of our courts, and not just in terms of demographics but in terms of experience, professional experience too,” said Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. “We are working hard not only to add more women, more people of color, more lawyers from unique backgrounds to the bench, but people of different walks of life.”

He said the first three judges confirmed since the start of the year were historic:

• DeAndrea Benjamin will be the first woman of color to be a judge for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.

• Cindy Chung will be the first Asian American judge to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.

• Gina Méndez-Miró will be the first openly LGBTQ judge on the U.S. District Court of Puerto Rico bench.

Mr. Biden has seen 30 circuit court judges and 69 district court judges confirmed, as well as one Supreme Court justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson — totaling his 100 judicial appointments.

By contrast, former President Donald Trump confirmed 85 judicial nominees at this point in his tenure, and former President Barack Obama appointed 67.

Mr. Biden made a promise in his 2020 presidential campaign to appoint the first Black woman to the high court should there be a vacancy. He made good on that when Justice Stephen G. Breyer retired last year, tapping Justice Jackson.

Mr. Biden’s nominees have been mostly young, diverse and representative of different backgrounds of experience than most judicial appointees of prior presidents, court watchers have observed.

His nominees also don’t seem to be from big law firms, and many have public defender backgrounds rather than typical prosecutorial experience.

Source:Washington Times