The White House is working quietly with Senate Democrats to ensure that President Biden has a steady flow of nominees to federal courts, according to people familiar with the matter and a government official.
Why does it matter: Biden wants the federal judiciary to better reflect the country’s demographics and try to protect its legislative agenda from a judiciary currently dominated by Trump nominees.
- With Democrats in control of the White House and Senate, liberal-minded federal judges are already announcing their retirement.
- The government’s first nominating announcements are expected this month, but may drop in April.
The intrigue: Allies outside the White House say DC District Court judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is 50 and black, is likely to be nominated for a seat on the prestigious DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
- That could prepare her for the Supreme Court if Judge Stephen Breyer, 82, retires.
Driving the news: The White House has 10 openings in the appeals court, including two in the DC appeals court, and about 60 seats in the federal District Courts.
- He is valuing not only ethnic diversity, but also the candidates’ background and experience, seeking to attract judges from outside the usual group of corporate appeals lawyers.
- Age will matter, but not as much as it did for Trump.
- “We are making sure that there is a pipeline ready,” said a government official. “We want a stable supply.”
- Biden may not be able to match the ex-president’s mark in court – he had 234 confirmed federal judges, including three Supreme Court justices – but signaled to Democrats that he plans to act quickly to fill the vacancies he can.
Between the lines: In December, the new White House lawyer, Dana Remus, asked Democratic senators to send names of potential US District Court judges to the White House within 45 days of any vacancy announcement.
- The White House will take the lead for Circuit Court’s most powerful judges, one notch below the Supreme Court.
- It is also considering announcing a list of nominees, as President George W. Bush did during a ceremony at the Rose Garden in May 2001.
- The strategy would be to bombard the public – and the Senate – with a display of diversity and, at the same time, show strength in numbers.
What they are saying: “If you have a list of judges, you have the opportunity to have a number of public defenders, civil rights lawyers and labor lawyers to really show the breadth of the legal profession and what Biden is trying to accomplish in a way that you can’t achieve with just one or two judges, “said Christopher Kang, co-founder and chief adviser to Demand Justice.
- The Biden government is not ready to publicly reveal its strategy.
- “It is less about whether the first appointment is singular or plural,” said the government official. “The lesson learned was that you need to have a steady beat of nominees.”