But the confirmed 97, including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, surpassed Trump’s record of 85 justices. It was compiled with what was at that time one of the most intense efforts ever to fill court vacancies under the leadership of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader who has vowed “to leave no vacancy behind him”.
While the Republican-led Senate confirmed 30 appeals court justices, 53 district court justices and two Supreme Court justices at the end of Mr. Trump’s sophomore year, Democrats nominated 28 justices from court of appeal, 68 district court judges and one judge for the same number of time. They were also far more successful than President Barack Obama in his first two years with 62 confirmations.
Senator Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat and Majority Leader with a long interest in judicial confirmations, noted that of 28 appeals court judges confirmed by this Congress, 11 were black women, more than under all previous presidents combined.
“I’m particularly proud of professional diversity,” Schumer told reporters. “For the first time, we have a group of public defenders, immigration lawyers, consumers, so it’s not just the corporate perspective or the prosecutors’ perspective that is on the bench.”
The Democrats’ success in retaining and expanding their majority last month will allow them to continue to control the confirmation process while a new perk of a Judiciary Committee seat should make it easier for them to clear procedural hurdles.
But progressive justice activists warn that the Senate leadership may need to take other steps to keep up the pace over the next two years. So far, Democrats have adhered to an informal tradition that gives home-state senators a virtual veto over nominees for district court seats under what’s known as the rule of “blue slip” by agreeing not to proceed unless senators return a blue slip of approval. .
As a result, the Biden administration should negotiate judicial selections for district court seats in states represented by at least one Republican senator if it hopes to fill these growing vacancies. Republican voting records on the committee and the Senate as a whole suggest that finding common ground on nominees could be difficult and time-consuming. A district court pick for Wisconsin has already been blocked by Sen. Ron Johnson, the state’s Republican, refusing to return a blue slip.