People For scored important victories recently in our years-long campaign to ensure fair courts with highly-qualified, fair-minded, diverse judges committed to justice and equality for all. We were a major player in helping to secure the nomination and confirmation of a stunningly diverse number of extraordinarily qualified judges. We worked with the White House to encourage the nomination of d high-quality nominees and with the Senate Judiciary Committee and full Senate to process t these nominees.
We set ambitious goals for ourselves regarding nominations and confirmations, with the real impact of confirming these judges on the quality of justice experienced by Americans day-to-day.
Key Impacts on Judicial Nominations and Confirmations
- By the end of 2023, we celebrated the confirmation of 166 Biden federal court nominees. In addition to the historic confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman Supreme Court justice, we saw the confirmation of 39 circuit court of appeals judges and 126 district court judges.
- These were the most professionally and personally diverse federal judicial nominees in our nation’s history, including a record number of public defenders and civil rights and workers’ rights advocates:
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- 108 women
- 110 people of color
- 54 Black nominees, of whom 33 are Black women – more Black women confirmed to circuit courts of appeals than all other presidents combined
- 32 Hispanic nominees
- Four Native American judges, as many as all previous presidents combined
- Our support for blue slip reform helped encourage consultation between Republican home state senators and the White House on quality nominees in those states. Just in the last three months of 2023, of the 17 district court nominations by the White Hose, 14 were from states with one or two Republican senators s – and the number of blue slips returned by Republican senators increased dramatically.
- We achieved outstanding activist engagement through member briefings, petitions, digital toolkits, and paid calls. We garnered thousands of signatures on a petition to fill all judicial vacancies and drove hundreds of calls to the Senate encouraging the prompt confirmation of Biden’s judicial nominees. More than 100 members attended our member briefings about the courts.
- We have contributed strategic thought leadership and undertook cutting edge research on the impact of Biden-appointed judges as compared to those appointed by Trump. As we have shown, Biden judges have made a real difference to millions across the country in such areas as workers’ rights environment and health, gun safety, elections, and government official accountability.
- And we served as a resource in coverage in media sources like theGrio, The Washington Times, the BBC, the HuffPost, and The Hill.
Supreme Court Responds to Ethics Pressure and Our Movement Grows
People For has also advocated for an enforceable code of ethics for the U.S. Supreme Court for years, increasing the pressure as Court ethics scandals mount. Our pressure, combined with that of numerous pro-justice groups, preceded the Court’s announcement of a code of conduct in November. We pointed out that this code still fell short of important goals.
Meanwhile, as issues around Supreme Court ethics and corruption took center stage, we took the opportunity to focus our movement-building efforts around reform issues. Activist engagement is critically important to building a movement around the fight for fair courts. Building this strength now equips us to mobilize this constituency as a strong bloc of courts-focused voters in 2024.
These victories are only possible through the support of our members and donors. Help us continue fighting for fair courts in 2024 by donating and becoming a member of People For the American Way today.