Biden judicial picks win Senate backing at pace not seen since Nixon

Sept 13 – President Joe Biden’s nominees to the federal bench are winning U.S. Senate confirmation at a pace not seen in half a century, as Democrats race to put their stamp on the increasingly conservative judiciary before they potentially lose their control of the chamber.

Nine Biden judicial nominees have so far cleared the Senate, a rate not seen since the Nixon administration, according to new research from the Brookings Institution. And with Democrats’ 50-50 control of the Senate an election away from being lost, they have every incentive to keep the pace up.

The Democrats’ goal is to counter the influence of Republican former President Donald Trump’s near-record 234 confirmed judicial nominees. Those included 54 appellate judges, who have further entrenched a conservative judicial philosophy in the circuit courts.

“There’s a real understanding we have numbers now, we don’t know how long we will have them and there is zero margin of error, so we have to move as fast as we can,” said John Collins, a law professor at George Washington University who studies the judiciary.

The success that Biden and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, have had pushing judicial nominees through the chamber contrasts with Trump’s first year, when by Sept. 10 just four of his nominees had been confirmed.

That’s according to an analysis by Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution who examined the speed by which nominees advanced in the Senate during past administrations.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Biden’s success comes despite having nominated six fewer judges than the 49 Trump had by put forward by the same point in his presidency.

Biden’s confirmed nominees include Ketanji Brown Jackson, a potential U.S. Supreme Court pick now on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Three other appellate judges were also confirmed: Candace Jackson-Akiwumi to the Chicago-based 7th Circuit, Tiffany Cunningham to the patent-focused Federal Circuit, and Eunice Lee to the New York-based 2nd Circuit.

All four are Black women. Biden has promised to use his nominees to add greater personal and professional diversity to the bench, with people of color, women, public defenders and civil rights litigators among his nominees.

More confirmations are coming: Schumer on Aug. 31 moved to cut off debate on the nomination of Veronica Rossman to the Denver-based 10th Circuit, teeing up her nomination for a vote later this month.

The confirmation process accelerated during the Obama-era after Democrats in 2013 ended the ability of senators to filibuster most judicial nominees. Republicans ended the ability to filibuster Supreme Court picks in 2017.

Biden’s nominees have also been…