Biden Confirmed More Judges Than Trump Did

While there are endless amounts of news stories worth dismaying over these days, it’s still important to highlight the good news, and this is very good news. Because we live in a world where the legislature has decided to basically stop legislating and has given up all matters of oversight over the judiciary, the courts are how some of our most important laws are established, and the only way to accomplish many liberal policy goals is to appoint liberal judges. There are some who still believe in the non-partisan court system, but I also assume that those same people still believe in Santa Claus too.

For those of us who know that there will be no jolly old man putting presents under our tree tomorrow night, there was good news that slipped under the radar last week. Joe Biden and the Democrats in the Senate did excel at one thing these past four years, and it was doing more than Trump did to reshape the judiciary in their image (Supreme Court exempted).

Late on Friday, the Democratic-led Senate confirmed the 235th federal judge nominated by President Biden, giving him one more judge confirmed over his term than Donald Trump. This is likely the last judge that Biden will have confirmed, giving him a total of one Supreme Court justice (Ketanji Brown Jackson), 45 appeals court judges, 187 district court judges and two on the U.S. Court of International Trade, all serving lifetime appointments. On Twitter, Biden noted that this is “the largest number of confirmations in a term in nearly 50 years.”

The White House said that the “professional diversity” of these judges is robust, which includes “more than 45 public defenders, more than 25 civil rights lawyers, and at least 10 who have represented workers,” and judges who have worked on “immigration law, municipal law, and plaintiffs’ side work.”

The Republicans have adopted their typical stance of trying to pretend they don’t do the exact same thing while also boasting about doing the exact same thing, as Ted Cruz told NBC News, “I found it astonishing that Senate Democrats were willing to rubber-stamp absolute zealots to be judges,” while Chuck Grassley promised to do the thing Ted Cruz supposedly hates by saying, “they’re going to brag about having 235 instead of instead of Trump’s 234. On January 20 of 2029, Trump’s going to brag about having 240.”

There is a lot to worry about with the incoming Trump administration, and they will no doubt try to roll back as much progress as they possibly can in this impending kleptocracy, but it’s important that we don’t lose hope that we can fight back. Things felt really bleak in late 2016 too, and if I had told you that all the judges Trump would appoint over the coming years would be canceled out by Democratic judges in another four years’ time, the first four Trump years would be a little more tolerable. We don’t know what awaits us on the other side of the second Trump administration, but we do know that should the Democrats take power once again in 2028, the have proven they are willing to match Trump’s appointments to the judiciary. There are plenty of issues with the Democratic Party, but it’s important to note that they are willing to fight in instances like these, and not all hope is lost.