The First Two Years of Vice President Biden’s Presidency: His Legacy, His Work, His Family, and His Contributions to the Senate Democratic Campaign
The first two years that Biden was in the White House, the president broke records on judicial confirmations. He did so, however, by clearing through vacancies that would be the easiest for him to fill, because they largely stemmed from states represented by Democratic senators. Now his push on judges stands to head to parts of the country where filling openings will depend on either collaborative Republicans or an abandonment of a Senate norm.
In the last few days of the 117th Congress, the total number of confirmed judges and their makeup is revealed, along with the magnitude of the effort.
White house data obtained by CNN shows that over the last two years, 97 Article III judges were confirmed by Vice President Biden and the Senate Democrats.
In the next couple of years, the pace is likely to increase as Democrats prepare to expand their majority by a seat.
Trump’s success marked a cornerstone achievement for then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, and elevated the issue among Democrats, who saw the balance of courts from the Supreme Court on down reshaped before Trump’s 2020 reelection defeat.
Still, there are limitations on the extent to which Biden can match the scale of what Trump put into place in his four years, with vacancies – and on which courts those vacancies take place – presenting limitations on the reach of what will be a sustained White House effort. The scale of the effort led by McConnell, who would often repeat a personal mantra of “no vacancy left behind,” also resulted in significantly fewer opportunities for Biden, even as officials pledge to ramp up their own efforts in the next two years.
Biden’s senior team and Counsel’s office worked closely with the Senate to prioritize their efforts. Staff on the Pennsylvania Avenue side diligently worked to speed up effort for the entire month, even as it rarely paid much attention to major agenda items.
Reorganizing the Federal Courts: Biden’s Nominations and the Impact on the Judiciary Subcommittee
The first half of the transformational effort to reorganize the federal courts was secured by Senate Republicans with a total of 85.
Beyond the overall numbers, the nominees selected by Biden and shepherded through the chamber by Schumer, a New York Democrat, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin of Illinois, also reflect a commitment to rethink the profile of those considered for the high-profile positions.
Biden has overseen the confirmation of more women to the federal bench, 74, than former President Donald Trump secured in four years in office and former President George W. Bush in all eight years of his presidency.
In the group of nominations that have passed the Senate muster, the composition has skewed towards people of color, with most of the group being people of color.
Democrats securing a new seat in the Senate has boosted their work on judges. The extra vote means that Democrats are breathing easier. Before, the opposition of a single Democrat could tank a nominee and if any Democrat was absent from a floor vote, it could scuttle his or her approval.
But the committee’s Democratic leadership is stopping short of committing to another aggressive move that would hyper-charge Biden’s reshaping of the judiciary.
Activists on the left want Chairman Dick Durbin to abolish the “blue slip,” the last major tool GOP senators have to constrain the impression Biden can make on the courts, but the Illinois Democrat has not been willing to take that step.
The Senate’s agenda is wide open. Republicans’ takeover of the House is expected to clear the decks for the Senate to focus on more judicial confirmations with a grim outlook on much legislation passing out of Congress over the next two years.
The situation is well positioned and Russ Feingold, who served on the Senate Judiciary Committee and is now the leader of the American Constitution Society, thinks so. Failing to confirm as many judges as possible would be an historic failure.
Republicans faced a risk last year that they wouldn’t show up for the committee. Under the rules of last term’s 50-50 Senate, a lack of quorum would debilitate the committee.
Democrats are expected to outnumber Republicans on the Committee by one vote when the Senate adopts the new regime.
The committee aide, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, said that the additional seat would benefit the committee because they were not under threat of being shut down. The aide cautioned, however, against talk “as though it is totally easy, smooth sailing now, with the numerical majority.”
We need to be able to persuade colleagues, both Democrat and Republican, to come forward quickly with nominees, to negotiate packages with the White House, and to move forward without having to overturn a longstanding tradition of respecting the input of state senators. “But if we cannot make progress on that, that’s a question that will certainly be in front of the committee later this Congress.”
“We haven’t really had a chance to see if Senate Republicans are going to play ball in the same way that Senate Democrats did under President Trump,” the aide said.
Lindsey Graham has encouraged Republicans to come to the table with the White House on nominations, as other Senate democrats share his wariness about abandoning the blue slip. The South Carolina senator acknowledged that the elections have consequences as he opened the first meeting of the year.
At a meeting last week, Cornyn said that the White House had recently expressed interest in looking at his state’s district court vacancies. The White House was silent when CNN inquired about the story.