Senate Confirms President Joe Biden’s 100th Judicial Nomination—Outpacing Trump

Topline

The Senate confirmed Gina Méndez-Miró as a district judge in Puerto Rico on Tuesday, President Joe Biden’s 100th confirmed judicial nominee, in a vote that marks a milestone for the president and Democratic-led Senate and outpaces the rate of judicial confirmations at this point in former President Donald Trump’s tenure.

Key Facts

The Senate voted 54-45 on Tuesday to confirm Puerto Rico Appeals Court Judge Gina Méndez-Miró as a district judge in Puerto Rico.

Four Republicans, Sens. Lindsey Graham (Ga.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Roger Wicker (Miss.), voted with Democrats.

Biden nominated Méndez-Miró, who has served on the Puerto Rico Court of Appeals since 2016 and will be the first openly gay federal district court judge in Puerto Rico, for a district judgeship in June last year, and the Senate advanced her nomination in a 52-44 procedural vote on Monday.

The Senate has confirmed 69 district court judges, 30 appeals court judges and one Supreme Court justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominated by Biden so far.

Big Number

234. That’s the total number of federal judges confirmed by the Senate during Trump’s first term in office, including three Supreme Court justices and 54 appellate judges, more than any president since Jimmy Carter. Trump reached the milestone of 100 confirmed judges in May of his third year in office.

Key Background

Biden has made strides to diversify the federal courts and balance the scales after Trump stacked the courts with hundreds of conservative justices. Trump’s Supreme Court picks, Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, left the nine-member body with just three liberal-leaning justices. After winning an additional seat in the midterm election to secure a 51-49 majority, Democratic leaders in the Senate expressed plans to make judicial confirmations a top priority. On Monday, the Senate confirmed 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Cindy Chung as the first Asian American to serve on the court. And last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved floor votes for 24 additional Biden judicial nominations after the split chamber declined to approve them during the previous session of Congress.

What To Watch For

Whether enough federal judges will retire for Biden to surpass Trump’s 234 confirmed judges, a scenario Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) expressed confidence in, telling NBC “if the pattern works out, we could get there.”

Further Reading

‘Judges Are Not Policymakers’: Amy Coney Barrett Accepts Trump Supreme Court Nomination (Forbes)

Trump Confirms 200th Judge, The Most In A First Term Since Carter (Forbes)

‘Groundbreaking’: Biden’s Diverse First Judicial Nominees Would Make History (Forbes)