President Joe Biden on Thursday announced his second batch of judicial appointments, a day after his first round began their confirmation hearings in the Senate.
Biden tapped three nominees for vacancies on federal district courts, meaning he has now picked 14 candidates to fill the 78 federal judicial vacancies former President Donald Trump left at the end of his term. Among the nominees were Judge David Estudillo and Tana Lin, an antitrust litigator, for U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, as well as Christine O’Hearn, who practices labor law, for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
BIDEN JUDICIAL NOMINEE DISTANCES HERSELF FROM CHRISTIAN SCHOOL’S STATEMENT OF FAITH
All three nominees, the White House noted in a statement, “speak to the president’s strong belief that the federal judiciary should reflect the proud diversity of the nation, both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds.” In his last round of nominations, the president made similar gestures toward the need for greater diversity on the federal judicial bench.
Many Democrats during the Wednesday hearings also pointed to the need for diversity, blaming the Trump administration for appointing fewer minorities to federal courts. Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal singled out the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where Justice Amy Coney Barrett served prior to the Supreme Court, for its lack of diversity.
“All of the judges sitting on the court are white. In 2021, I am dumbstruck,” he said. “It’s breathtaking that a federal circuit court in any part of our country is all white.”
The hearing focused on the nominations of Candace Jackson-Akiwumi to the 7th Circuit and Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Jackson is widely considered to be a favorite for Justice Stephen Breyer’s seat if he retires from the Supreme Court. Biden on the campaign trail said that he would like to put a black woman on the Supreme Court.
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The White House, in its nomination announcements, claimed that Biden had been the fastest to nominate judges of any president in modern history. Biden walked into the White House after Trump had substantially changed the tilt of the judiciary by appointing more conservative judges, especially on federal appeals courts.
Biden in April announced a court commission to study, among other things, the expansion of the Supreme Court.
