Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer took a victory lap on Twitter after Democrats confirmed President Joe Biden’s 100th judicial nominee, reaching the milestone quicker than Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
In a series of statements online, Schumer, D-NY, boasted Democrats added their 100th nominee to the courts and that the confirmations added “more women [and] more people of color.”
“BIG NEWS: This Senate Democratic Majority has just confirmed the 100th federal judge nominated by President Biden,” Schumer tweeted.
The senior Democrat’s praise comes after the Democrat-controlled Senate confirmed Gina Méndez-Miró to U.S. District Judge for the District of Puerto Rico, Cindy Chung to Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit, and DeAndrea Benjamin to U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fourth Circuit.
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Schumer highlighted how many of the confirmations further diversified the courts.
“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,” he added in a press release. “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.”
Biden’s total federal court confirmations include one U.S. Supreme Court justice, 30 Circuit judges, and 69 District judges, according to Senate Democrats.
Of these confirmations, 76 are women and 68 are people of color, including 33 who are Black and 21 are Hispanic.
“More Black women have been confirmed to Circuit Court judgeships under President Biden and Senate Democrats than under all previous presidents combined,” Senate Democrats said. “The first three judges confirmed by the 118th Congress are all historic, well-qualified, diverse women who exemplify this Congress’s commitment to reshaping the federal judiciary to look more like America.”
They added: “Senate Democrats are committed to adding a breadth of experience to the federal bench, beyond the typical trial lawyers, and we are working towards that goal. This Senate has confirmed more public defenders to appeals courts than any in history and has placed an emphasis on confirming more civil rights, legal aid, and election and voting rights lawyers to diversify experience on the federal bench.”
Schumer also said his party is not slowing down and has vowed to continue filling court vacancies.
“This Senate has confirmed more judges by this point in a president’s term than under either of the two previous administrations, and we’ll keep going,” he added.
According to Schumer, President Trump only had 85 total confirmed judges at this point of his presidency. Obama lagged further behind with 67 total confirmations.
All three presidents had at least one Supreme Court justice confirmed in that span, as Biden nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson, Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh (Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed later, in Oct. 2020), and Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
President Biden also addressed the milestone, saying “as a former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, strengthening the federal judiciary with extraordinarily qualified judges who are devoted to our Constitution and the rule of law has been among my proudest work in office.”
“I’m especially proud that the nominees I have put forward—and the Senate has confirmed—represent the diversity that is one of our best assets as a nation, and that our shared work has broken so many barriers in just 2 years,” he added.
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He also highlighted the appointees’ diversity, as Judge Chung “will be the first AAPI judge to serve” on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and Judge Mendez-Miro “will be the first openly LGBT judge to serve” on the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.
Biden said: “We have made important progress in ensuring that the federal judiciary not only looks more like the nation as a whole, but also includes judges from professional backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented on the bench. To that end, I have appointed more federal circuit judges with experience as public defenders than all prior presidents combined.”
“I was proud to nominate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, and I am also proud to have confirmed 12 Black women to serve on federal circuit courts—more than all other Presidents combined,” the president said.
‘Since long before the inauguration, I directed my team to make judicial confirmations a leading priority of this administration, and they acted quickly to begin consultations with Senators from both parties about how we could be as productive as possible,” he added. “And we certainly have been productive.”
In his remarks, Biden thanked Sens. Schumer, Dick Durbin, and other senators from both sides of the aisle that voted to confirm these judicial nominees.
