President Joe Biden on Wednesday nominated a third round of judicial candidates, bringing his nominee count up to 20 judges since he took office in January.
BIDEN JUDICIAL NOMINEE DISTANCES HERSELF FROM CHRISTIAN SCHOOL’S STATEMENT OF FAITH
As with the first two rounds, Biden leaned heavily into his administration’s commitment to racial diversity with his latest picks. The White House emphasized in a press release that they “represent not only the excellence but the diversity of our nation with respect to both personal and professional backgrounds.”
Three of Biden’s picks are for appellate courts. Biden tapped Puerto Rico Chief Judge Gustavo A. Gelpi for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, Eunice Lee, a New York federal defender, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, and Veronica Rossman, a public defender in Wyoming and Colorado for the U.S. Court of Appeals, for the 10th Circuit.
The other three picks are for federal district courts. Biden nominated Angel Kelley, a Massachusetts state judge, to serve in the state’s federal district. He also picked Lauren King, a Seattle attorney, for the Washington district, and Karen Williams, a New Jersey judge, to serve on the state’s federal district court.
The Biden administration claimed in a statement that the president has been the fastest executive to nominate candidates for federal judicial vacancies. Biden came into office after former President Donald Trump made it a priority to fill the many vacancies left by the departing Obama administration. Trump reworked the federal judiciary, most notably in his nomination of three Supreme Court justices.
But since Biden took office, many federal judges have retired, leaving a total of 81 vacancies by early May. At the same time, Democratic activists have been pushing Justice Stephen Breyer to retire from the Supreme Court. The justice, who is 82, has been ambiguous in his plans for the future.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The widely recognized favorite to replace Breyer is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom Biden appointed earlier this year to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which is often viewed as a stepping stone to the Supreme Court.
Other Democrats have also been pushing for other ways to water down Trump’s gains in the judiciary, including by expanding the courts. Biden commissioned a group of legal scholars to study the issue but drew criticism from many on the Left when he did not ask the commission to offer recommendations on whether or not to do it.
