WASHINGTON — The Democratic-led Senate is poised to confirm President Joe Biden’s 200th federal judge on Wednesday, a milestone that highlights a stark contrast with his electoral rival, Republican former President Donald Trump, as they seek to shape the courts in next four years.
It is unclear whether Biden will reach the 234 judges Trump secured during his presidential term. But the winners of the presidency and the Senate majority will have the power to shape the courts for years to come, and the two men have dramatically different criteria in choosing nominees.
Whoever occupies the White House next term could even choose one or more new Supreme Court justices, which could change or consolidate the current 6-3 conservative majority. When the winner takes office, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas will be 76 and conservative Justice Samuel Alito will be 74. The next oldest member of the court is liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who will be 70. a week after inauguration.
“Father Time moves on. There may be a few spots for whoever wins. And we could all get run over tomorrow,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a candidate for Judiciary Committee chairman if Republicans win the Senate majority. “But the president’s four years – one of the biggest prizes is the court. So you might have some Republicans who think, ‘Now is the time for me to leave, so my replacement will be someone with my philosophy,’ and vice versa.”
In addition to selecting new justices, the two parties have different visions for the Supreme Court: Democrats say they are looking for new rules, such as a binding code of ethics and impeachment standards for justices, and a more active role in overseeing the Supreme Court. court. Republicans, satisfied with the conservative majority they have built, are telegraphing a hands-off approach that would preserve the court’s existing structure.
Graham said the stakes in the court election could simply be summed up as: “More conservative if we win. More liberals if they win.”
Biden and Trump’s court records
Biden’s judges include many former civil rights lawyers, employment lawyers and public defenders, breaking with the model of prosecutors and corporate lawyers that previous presidents tended to rely on. More than 60% of Biden’s judges are women and more than 60% are nonwhite, the White House said. It stated that he placed more black women on district courts than all previous presidents combined and more Hispanic and Asian-American judges than any other president.
“For decades, Joe Biden has worked to protect and strengthen the integrity of our judicial system – and as president, he has appointed the most diverse slate of federal judges ever, all of whom are committed to the Constitution and the rule of law,” Biden said. campaign spokesman Charles Lutvak said in an email.
“Trump spent four years trying to reshape the courts to undo the election he lost and deny Americans fundamental rights. But if he gets another four years, it will be even worse: he will appoint people who share his extreme ideology. This election is nothing less than a choice between democracy and dictatorship,” he added.
Trump had a different standard in selecting judges, valuing young and conservative credentials. He chose a much larger share of white and male nominees than Biden and a smaller share of non-white Americans than his three predecessors, according to the Pew Research Institute.
In 2022, Biden chose Ketanji Brown Jackson, a former public defender, to be the first black woman on the Supreme Court; she has since become a reliable member of the liberal bloc. It’s unclear whether Biden will have another vacancy to fill before the November election. In his four years, Trump has chosen three members of the conservative bloc — all of whom were 55 or younger when they were nominated.
“I faced vile attacks from the radical left to confirm three great Supreme Court justices: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. They are great. Oh, they were thrilled when I got three,” Trump said Saturday at the National Rifle Association convention.
In his speech, Trump recalled talking to one of his “people” while he was president, who told him about judicial nominees: “We like people in their 30s, so they’ve been there for 50 or 40 years.” .
Trump said he remembered thinking, “Yeah, they’re exactly right.”
Democrats keep an eye on Supreme Court ethics rules
On Democrats’ priority list is Supreme Court ethics legislation, a cause fueled this week by reports that an inverted American flag flew outside Alito’s home days after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, when rioters brandished the symbol to try to overturn the result of the 2020 elections and keep Trump in power.
“We have a lot of bills that we want to bring to the floor, but this is one of them in high consideration,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters on Tuesday, adding that “it was really a wrong thing to do” on Alito’s part, “and it casts some doubt on his impartiality.” (AlitO forld Fox News that his wife hung the flag in a dispute with the neighbors.)
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., defended Alito when he was asked about the inverted flag and whether Alito should recuse himself from Trump-related cases.
“There are nonstop attacks on the Supreme Court, week after week. And so I’m not going to dignify that with an answer. We need to leave the Supreme Court alone,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “Protect them from people who come into their neighborhoods and try to harm them.”
Progressive advocacy group Stand Up America wants to go further, encouraging Democrats to run for Supreme Court review in the election. It commissioned a national poll conducted by the Democratic firm Hart Research Associates, shared for the first time with NBC News, that found overwhelming support for term limits for judges. By 64% to 24%, registered voters said they favor 18-year terms for current and future judges, which would allow each president to fill two vacancies in a four-year term.
When the poll asked voters how they would react if a congressional candidate supported 18-year term limits for justice, 45% said it would make them “more likely” to vote for them, while 20% said it would make them “more likely” to vote for them. less likely” to vote for them. ”And 35% said it would have “no effect anyway.”
(Hart Research Associates co-conducts the NBC News poll with GOP pollster Public Opinion Strategies.)
A White House spokesperson noted that Biden has endorsed Supreme Court ethics and transparency legislation, but did not comment on whether he favors term limits for judges.
Democrats, who are defending a fragile 51-vote Senate majority in a difficult election cycle, say they worry that the Supreme Court will move further to the right if they do not win the election.
“I don’t even want to think about it. I already have enough sources of anxiety and sadness,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “It’s a scary thought, because obviously several of them could resign at any time to make way for the next wave of far-right MAGA judges — who aren’t really judges, just politicians in robes.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
