With just 62 days to go, the final sprint to Election Day is here, and we’re in a political world that has transformed overnight.
President Biden has cemented his legacy as a patriot who put country over party and over self. He ceded the spotlight to Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrats’ presidential nominee — and her campaign took off like a rocket. But we shouldn’t be ready to write the coda to Biden’s career just yet or close the books on his historic presidency.
Biden still has more than four more months in office. And with the Senate’s help, there is still time to secure his place in history in another long-lasting way: by confirming as many federal judges as possible.
Although a president may serve for four or eight years, federal judges can serve for decades — and their influence on our rights and our society is one of the most significant legacies of a president’s term.
We must let the Senate know there can be no letup in its work on judges this year — before or after the election.
The Biden White House is doing its part, continuing to nominate sterling individuals. The Senate Judiciary Committee, under the leadership of Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), is continuing to hold timely hearings and committee votes on these nominees.
Now it is time for the full Senate under the leadership of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to bring the remaining nominees in the pipeline for a vote, even in the face of massive Republican obstruction.
We need to keep up this effort even though Biden’s record on judges is already impressive.
He has diversified the bench like no president before him. We all know about Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. But circuit and district courts nationwide have seen many similar “firsts” during the last four years.
And the judges President Biden nominates are not only historically diverse but deeply committed to civil and human rights and making a real difference in people’s lives.
Biden judges have protected the right to vote, striking down laws that undermined rights for voters with disabilities. They’ve protected our freedom to learn, allowing local library board members to seek justice when they were fired for trying to make sure kids had access to books about LGBTQ people. And they’ve protected the rights of transgender Americans, consumers and workers.
The urgency of confirming more of these excellent judges now isn’t just because of their positive impact, although that reason is strong. Senators must clear the decks for new business next year, including new judicial nominations that appear more and more likely to come from a Harris White House.
Trump seated 234 federal judges, the most by any one-term president since Jimmy Carter. Biden, with the help of Senate Democrats under Schumer and Durbin’s leadership, has seated 205 federal judges so far. This administration and this Senate can and should surpass Trump’s number.
When senators left town for the summer, they left 21 judicial nominees fully vetted by the Judiciary Committee and ready for a confirmation vote. About half a dozen more will clear the committee in mid-September. There are several additional nominees who haven’t had hearings yet.
Getting these individuals confirmed means clearing as many as possible before the election, then coming back for several weeks to finish the job during the lame duck. It may require late-night votes, but that’s a small price to pay for protecting our judicial system and the rights of Americans.
And the Senate should pay particular attention to the handful of circuit court nominees waiting for votes. These highly influential courts issue rulings that bind all federal courts within their region of states, and because of Senate rules it takes much longer to confirm each of these appeals court nominees.
It can be done: In the fall of 2020, Republicans showed us that when a party understands the importance of federal courts, they can move fast. After Labor Day of 2020, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) Senate confirmed 31 more Article III Trump judges — including Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
We need to say to the Senate leadership that confirming this cohort of judges is something one generation owes to the next. If we believe Harris will win — and I do, although it will be close — it’s something this administration must do to set her up for success. Prioritizing great judges matters today and tomorrow, because Harris will carry the torch on this issue if she is elected.
We’ve made history more than once under the Biden administration. Let’s do it one more time with an enduring gift to our justice system, and our children and grandchildren: more outstanding Biden judges.
