President Joe Biden surpassed President-elect Donald Trump‘s first-term judicial record as Senate Democrats confirmed two final district judges on Friday, bringing his total number to 235 during the outgoing president’s term.
The confirmations of Benjamin Cheeks to be district judge for the Southern District of California and Serena Murillo to be district judge for the Central District of California bring Biden’s total to be one more than Trump’s 234 confirmations in his first term.
The Senate confirmed Cheeks 49-47 on party lines, with Murillo approved by the same margins.
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Biden’s number is second only to President Jimmy Carter, who confirmed 259 judges during his presidency.
“We have confirmed more judges than under the Trump administration, more judges than any administration in this century, more judges than any administration going back decades,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, taking a victory lap on the floor of the Senate on Friday night.
“One out of every four active judges on the bench has been appointed by this majority,” he added. “Together, these individuals are arguably the most qualified and historic nominees ever confirmed in a four year span.”
.@SenSchumer is taking a victory lap over the confirmation of the 235th judicial nominee. “One out of every four active judges on the bench has been appointed by this majority,” he said, standing alongside Judiciary Committee Chairman @SenatorDurbin and Democrats. pic.twitter.com/t6MlLOp4rL
— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) December 21, 2024
Schumer cut a deal with Republicans before Thanksgiving to fast-track approval of nine federal district court judges. In exchange, Schumer agreed not to move forward with four higher-level circuit court picks, saving the positions for Trump to fill. Later, Democrats acknowledged they likely wouldn’t have had enough votes to win confirmation on those nominees regardless.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, emphasized that the majority of the judges who were confirmed had support on both sides of the aisle.
“Over 80% of these judicial nominees were approved on a bipartisan basis, Democrats and Republicans,” Durbin said.
“It was our job to not only find the best people, and every single one of them was reviewed and found qualified or well qualified by the American Bar Association in the previous four years under President Trump’s first term. That was not the case, but it is the case of the President Joe Biden,” Durbin said.
Senate Democrats worked to follow the lead of outgoing GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has built his legacy on reshaping the federal judiciary, including three appointments to the Supreme Court. Biden was only able to confirm one nominee.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Democrats took full advantage of their majority in the Senate.
“They learned a lesson from the first Trump administration,” Grassley said, speaking to reporters. “Paying attention to the number of judges you get and the type of judges you put on the court is worth it.”
While Democrats are celebrating their accomplishment, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) acknowledges the moment is bittersweet now that Trump will have another shot to nominate federal judges when he returns to office in January.
“I’m not ready to uncork the champagne just because we’ve done some really good work over the last four years,” Blumenthal explained. “We need to be prepared to work, hope for the best, and try to defeat nominees who are simply unqualified.”
He later emphasized there needs to be formal rules against the practice of judge shopping.
“There are informal rules now, but they’re almost impossible to enforce, and those rules need to be turned into binding scripture against bringing cases in tiny districts where favorable results can result and then be affirmed by a circuit that’s dominated by the far right,” Blumenthal said.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) will have a similar opportunity as Schumer beginning on Jan. 3 when he takes over as GOP leader.
“I’m incredibly proud of how the Senate Republican Conference worked as a team with former President Trump to shape the federal judiciary. I look forward to working with him to double down on our efforts during his next term in office,” Thune told the Washington Examiner in April.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said Biden kept his vow to counter Trump’s conservative judicial choices and to diversify the bench, by shattering records for racial minorities, women, and LGBT appointees.
Biden’s record will mean that Trump will have far fewer openings to fill than eight years ago.
“On Inauguration Day 2025, there will be no Supreme Court openings, three current, and one future, appellate vacancies, and 34 current, and six future, openings,” Tobias said.
“Upon Trump’s 2017 inauguration, he had more than 100 federal court vacancies to fill, primarily because GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) had permitted miniscule numbers of confirmation votes on President Barack Obama’s well-qualified, centrist judicial nominees in 2015-16 after the GOP captured the Senate majority in 2014.”
Grassley is already aiming to surpass Biden’s number when he takes over as chairman next year.
“By January 20th of 2029, Trump will be bragging about getting 240 judges,” he said.
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Both Biden and Trump had more success confirming judges than former President Barack Obama, who was only able to get 170 of his judicial nominees through the Senate by Dec. 17, 2012, the comparable date of the end of his first term.
