The Enlightenment

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Welcome to The Judiciary at Noon! Take a break from work to get an update on the oft-neglected third branch of the United States government, the judicial branch.

The series covers any updates to the federal judiciary, including any new judges confirmed, any deaths, resignations, or retirements from the courts, and any new vacancies that have occurred. It includes political analysis at the very end. All information spans the previous week.

Confirmations

No judges were confirmed for the week of April 19 to 25, 2024.

Vacancies

No new vacancies occurred on the federal judiciary for the week of April 19 to 25, 2024. 73 vacancies remain on the federal judiciary, a number unchanged from a week ago.

Retirements, Deaths, and Resignations

No new retirements, deaths, or resignations occurred on the federal judiciary for the week of April 19 to 25, 2024.

Other

• Apr. 24, 2024: President Biden nominated seven new district court judges to district courts in California, Illinois, Maine, Montana, and New York.

Analysis

The Senate has not spent much time as of late confirming judges. Instead, it has been busy the past week or two with the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and passing several key bills regarding domestic surveillance and foreign aid to Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine.

The Senate will next convene on Tuesday of next week. The Senate plans to review legislation, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has also scheduled a vote on the nomination of Georgia Alexakis to the District of Northern Illinois.

We will have to see what the Senate intends on doing next week, but I will say this: Phew. Seven new nominations is a significant number, especially given that announcements of new judges are typically done in groups of four or five.

The nomination of judge Danna Jackson to Montana is especially prudent, considering that Democratic Montana Senator Jon Tester faces a difficult re-election this year.

President Biden has had good success in nominating judges to states with Republican Senators; he has appointed judges to Florida, Indiana, and Oklahoma, among others. With this most recent announcement, Biden will add Montana and Maine to the list of those states as well.

Despite this success, Biden has struggled to get nominees through in most of the deep South. Vacancies in North Carolina, Missouri, and Arkansas remain.

All in all, I think the impact that President Biden has had on the judiciary thus far–and his confirmation efforts are not over–has been astounding. Biden has appointed 194 federal judges, close to the 234 that former President Trump appointed.

Some of the most important and busy courts in the country have swung very strongly to the left in just a few years. New Jersey was majority Republican-appointed on the day of Biden’s inauguration; now almost two-thirds of its judges are Democrat-appointed.

The Central District of California, covering Los Angeles, was majority Republican. So was the Eastern District of New York, covering Long Island and Staten Island, Colorado, and Minnesota.

All of those courts now have Democratic majorities. The most impressive case of all is Western Washington, covering Seattle and Tacoma. Biden has appointed every single active judge on that court.

A similar process has played out in the higher-level appeals courts. Biden has appointed roughly 23% of the active appellate judiciary, which is why the storm of federal rulings striking down his administration’s policies in the first two years has since tapered off.

Though he didn’t get a chance to appoint three Supreme Court justices like Trump did, I believe Biden has reshaped the judiciary in his own right.

SIGN-OFF

That’s it for this week’s The Judiciary at Noon. This has been Anthony Myrlados. I’ll see you next noon and until then I wish you all an enjoyable weekend.