Democrats did it for Biden. Now Trump wants the same lame-duck judicial blitz
With fewer than 60 days remaining until Democrats take control of Congress, outstanding judicial appointments may be treated to a blitz of confirmations. There is plenty of precedent for that kind of appointment-clearing spree.
Imagen de Joe Biden
Two years after Democrats raced to confirm Joe Biden's judges before losing the Senate, President Donald Trump is pressing Republicans to run the same play before Democrats take the gavel in January.
The president made the stakes plain in a recent social media post, saying: "Very important for the US Senate to confirm all of our pending 161 Nominations, including 25 Federal Judges. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP."
Senate Republicans appear to be listening. Current Majority Leader John Thune, R- S.D., and the GOP conference agreed on a resolution to maximize their remaining 54 days in power. As of Wednesday, 24 of Trump's judicial nominations were pending in the Senate, according to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley's Judiciary Committee, which says it has moved at the fastest pace since the Reagan administration.
Democrats, meanwhile, are signaling they intend to slam the window shut. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the current Senate Minority Leader, told The Associated Press that Democrats will not fill the bench with "crappy nominees."
How Trump's record stacks up against modern presidents
Trump's first-term record remains one of the most judicially consequential in modern history.
His first-term total of 234 judges trails Barack Obama's 329 and George W. Bush's 340 judges successfully nominated and confirmed to the federal bench, but both of those presidents had eight years to reach their numbers, and Trump did it in four.
That first-term haul included 54 judges on the 13 federal appellate courts, one step below the Supreme Court, along with three high court justices.
Joe Biden edged past that mark only at the very end of his term. The Senate confirmed his 235th judicial nominee, surpassing the record of 234 confirmed during Trump's first term, according to The Hill.
In his second term, the Senate has confirmed 57 Trump judges, including 10 appeals court judges, 46 district judges and one member of the Court of International Trade. That pace is slower, partly because Trump has had comparatively few vacancies to fill in his second term, according to a Pew Research analysis. Even so, Trump nominees make up about one-third of active federal judges, CBS News reported.
Both parties have run this play before
The lame-duck judicial sprint is hardly a Trump invention. Two years ago, Democrats did the same thing for Biden. As Senate Democrats worked to push through Biden's remaining nominees before he left office and control of the chamber flipped, then-Minority Whip Thune pushed back. "If Sen. Schumer thought Senate Republicans would just roll over and allow him to quickly confirm multiple Biden-appointed judges to lifetime jobs in the final weeks of the Democrat majority, he thought wrong," Thune said at the time, according to CBS News.
The parties eventually struck a deal. An agreement between Senate Republicans and Democrats gave Biden the chance to outdo Trump's 234 confirmations, a race Biden ultimately won by a single judge, the Associated Press reported.
Republican allies outside Washington are now demanding the same urgency. "Every single federal judicial vacancy needs to be filled in the lame duck session," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on X. "The Senate should pull all-nighters for as long as it takes."
What comes next
The Judiciary Committee already voted to advance four of the president's U.S. District Court candidates and held confirmation hearings for four other judicial nominees Tuesday, and it is expected to hold more hearings next week, breaking from its usual every-other-week schedule.
The math is still daunting. There are currently 28 vacancies on the federal courts and another 15 seats that will open in the coming weeks and months. The confirmations also have to compete for floor time with a crowded year-end agenda. Other high-priority items punted to the lame duck body include the National Defense Authorization Act, a bipartisan permitting reform package and keeping the government funded.
Whatever the Senate finishes by January could be the last word for a while. Once Democrats take control, Trump could struggle to secure another judicial confirmation.
Amanda Head is White House Correspondent for Just the News. You can follow her here.
Originally published by the original outlet. Author: Amanda Head. Read the original.
🛠 Do you think there is an error in this article?
Recommendations
LATEST
