Skip to main content
The Latest /
Lower Federal Courts

Joe Biden Promises to Nominate Judges "Who Look Like America"

Joe Biden, speaking at a rally, pledged that his judicial nominees would "look like America" and are committed to the rule of law.
Photo: Michael Stokes / Flickr

Since the earliest days of the 2020 presidential election campaign, PFAW’s Vote the Courts 2020 campaign has urged presidential primary candidates to voice their plans to nominate fair-minded constitutionalists to our federal courts.

On May 4, former Vice President Joe Biden, who is now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, released a plan for Black America that highlighted the qualities his ideal judicial nominees would possess to further his agenda to tackle systemic racism and fight for civil rights.

On his campaign website, Biden pledged that he would:

“Appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices and federal judges who look like America, are committed to the rule of law, understand the importance of individual civil rights and civil liberties in a democratic society, and respect foundational precedents like Brown vs. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade.”

Biden also emphasized that “we can’t have four more years of Trump appointees filling lifetime judiciary seats. Trump has already appointed 193 federal judges – including two Supreme Court justices. Only eight are African American. Three Trump [Court of Appeals] appointees were rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association.”