President Joe Biden secured the confirmation of his 235th federal judicial nominee on Friday, surpassing President-elect Donald Trump’s first-term judicial confirmation record by one.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced the milestone after the Senate confirmed Serena Raquel Murillo to a lifetime position as a district judge for the Central District of California.
The Senate also voted to confirm the appointment of another Biden nominee, Benjamin Cheeks, to the federal district court in Southern California.
“This majority has now confirmed more judges under President Biden than any majority has confirmed in decades. This is historic,” Schumer said on the Senate floor on Friday.
“We have confirmed more judges than under the Trump administration, more judges than any administration in this century, and more judges than under any administration going back decades,” he said.
Biden has secured one Supreme Court justice, 45 Circuit Court judges, 187 district judges, and two International Trade Court judges during his presidency, according to a White House fact sheet.
The White House stated that Biden’s judicial nominees came from diverse professional backgrounds, including more than 45 public defenders, 25 civil rights lawyers, and at least 10 individuals with experience representing workers.
His judicial nominees also included individuals with backgrounds in private legal practice, prosecutors’ offices, immigration law, municipal law, and plaintiff-side law.
“When I ran for President, I promised to build a bench that looks like America and reflects the promise of our nation,” Biden, whose presidential term will end in January, said in a statement.
“And I’m proud I kept my commitment to bolstering confidence in judicial decision-making and outcomes,” he added.
About two-thirds of Biden’s appointees are women and a solid majority of appointees are people of color, including several Native American and Native Hawaiian judges.
The most notable appointee was Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first African American woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.
“President Biden is proud of his record of appointments and grateful to the Senate for its partnership in reaching this historic achievement,” the White House stated.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, hailed the judicial confirmation as “one of the biggest accomplishments of Senate Democrats.”
“These judges will be a lifelong frontline defense against attacks on our democracy and freedoms,” Durbin stated on X.
According to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Biden has appointed 63 black judges, 12 openly LGBT judges, and the first four Muslim judges in the nation’s history. The group stated that the U.S. federal court system has “historically failed” to keep “equal justice under the law.”
“Our federal courts are more reflective of our country thanks to the remarkable and historic progress made during the Biden administration,” the rights group stated.
While Biden secured more district judge confirmations than Trump, he had fewer higher-tier circuit court appointments, with 45 compared to Trump’s 54 during his first term. Biden also secured one Supreme Court confirmation, while Trump had three.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) criticized the political views of the nominees.
“One of the consequences of the age of Trump is that it drove Democrats insane and it drove them to the extreme left, so they put people on the bench who were selected because they were extreme partisans,” he said.
The Senate confirmed 234 of Trump’s judicial nominees during his first term as president. Trump is scheduled to be inaugurated for a second term on Jan. 20, 2025.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times