In a surprising development on Capitol Hill, Senate Democrats have reached a compromise deal with their Republican colleagues to expedite the confirmation of more federal judges before president-elect Donald Trump is sworn in for his second term. The agreement, hammered out in late-night negotiations, will bring President Joe Biden within striking distance of matching the whopping 234 judicial appointments made during Trump’s chaotic first term.
According to sources close to the talks, the Senate will forgo votes on four of Biden’s nominees to the powerful appellate courts, which have been a flashpoint in the increasingly partisan judicial wars. In exchange, the chamber will fast-track the approval of 13 district court judges in the waning days of the current Congress.
A Race Against the Clock
The deal comes as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has been working feverishly to shepherd as many of Biden’s judicial picks through the confirmation process as possible before Republicans regain control of the chamber in January. To date, the Senate has confirmed 221 Biden nominees to the federal bench, an impressive tally but still shy of Trump’s first-term total.
With time running out, Schumer has kept the Senate in session late into the night and forced a slew of procedural votes to overcome GOP delaying tactics. The agreement reached on Thursday will grease the wheels for seven district court nominees to receive floor votes in early December, while teeing up another six for potential approval before year’s end.
Appellate Nominees Left in Limbo
However, the deal comes at a cost. Four of Biden’s nominees to the influential circuit courts of appeals will be left in limbo, casualties of the legislative horse-trading. They include Adeel Abdullah Mangi, a Harvard and Oxford-educated attorney who would have been the first Muslim American to serve on a federal appellate bench.
While Mangi has an impressive legal pedigree, his nomination faced opposition from some Democrats over his limited volunteer work with outside advocacy groups. With the clock ticking, Schumer’s team ultimately calculated that Mangi and three other appellate picks lacked the votes to be confirmed.
Reports that there is a deal that would leave behind critical circuit court nominees are unacceptable. All of these nominees must be confirmed expeditiously before the end of the 118th Congress.
– Lena Zwarensteyn, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Liberal Groups Cry Foul
The decision to sacrifice the appellate nominees has infuriated liberal advocacy groups, who have been pressuring Senate Democrats to pull out all the stops to confirm Biden’s judicial picks. Some see the deal as an unnecessary capitulation to Republican obstructionism.
All public officials need to be prepared to fight against the extremism that will come when Trump returns to office and retreating in advance is a dangerous precedent to set.
– Russ Feingold, former Democratic senator
But Schumer’s office insists they cut the best deal possible under the circumstances, securing confirmation for more than triple the number of judges than they are leaving behind. With Republicans poised to take over the Senate, some Democrats argue that half a loaf is better than none.
Shaping the Judiciary for a Generation
The high-stakes tug of war over judicial appointments reflects the outsized importance both parties place on shaping the federal judiciary. With lifetime tenure and enormous power to interpret the law, federal judges can influence American jurisprudence for a generation or more.
Trump’s success in appointing young, conservative judges to the bench was one of his signature achievements, delighting his base and alarming his critics. From the Supreme Court on down, Trump’s picks have begun to tilt the judiciary to the right on a range of hot-button issues from abortion and LGBTQ+ rights to environmental protection and corporate power.
Biden has endeavored to counter the Trump effect by appointing a diverse slate of judges with more progressive legal views. His nominees have included barrier-breaking picks like Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. But with a razor-thin Senate majority, Biden has faced an uphill climb in getting his judges confirmed.
The Road Ahead
As the sand runs out on Democratic control of the Senate, the deal struck this week represents a final push to put Biden’s stamp on the federal bench. While it falls short of the White House’s ambitious goals, it will edge Biden closer to parity with his predecessor’s judicial success.
But with Trump preparing for his White House return, liberals fear that any Democratic accomplishment will be fleeting. They worry that a re-elected President Trump, emboldened by an even more conservative Republican Party, will resume his judicial overhaul with a vengeance in a second term.
For now, Senate Democrats are taking what they can get, racing to confirm a final batch of Biden judges before the curtain falls on their majority. Only time will tell if their 11th-hour deal-making will leave a lasting mark or merely be a footnote in the annals of the Trump era.
