WASHINGTON ― Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) reached a late-night deal with Republicans on Wednesday to speed up the process for voting on some of President Joe Biden’s remaining judicial nominees, while agreeing not to hold votes on others.
The agreement ― cut by Schumer, independent Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.), and some Republicans ― means Schumer is teeing up votes on nine of Biden’s district court nominees and planning to confirm all of them when the Senate returns from Thanksgiving. GOP senators agreed not to impose delays on the process for these nine nominees.
Schumer plans to hold votes on more of the president’s court picks, not part of this deal, once those nine are done. The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday reported out five additional district court nominees, and another two are slated to get hearings in December. All will likely get confirmation votes.
If everything goes as planned, Schumer will push through as many as 16 of Biden’s judges in the coming weeks. The president could then leave office having confirmed a total of 236 lifetime federal judges, surpassing former President Donald Trump’s massive number of 234 lifetime federal judges in his first term.
However, in exchange for the GOP clearing the path for nine district court nominees, Schumer agreed not to try to confirm any of Biden’s remaining nominees to appeals courts, which are more powerful seats.
There are four appeals court nominees ready for Senate votes, but they haven’t moved in months and face stronger opposition from Republicans. Schumer’s office said that Wednesday’s bipartisan deal allowed Democrats to focus their energy on nominations where they were set up to win, and that the appeals court picks didn’t have the votes to prevail anyway.
“The trade was four circuit nominees — all lacking the votes to get confirmed — for more than triple the number of additional judges moving forward,” a Schumer spokesperson said.
Biden’s appeals court picks whose nominations are now officially dead because of this deal are Adeel Mangi, nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit; Karla Campbell, nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit; Julia Lipez, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit; and Ryan Park, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.
This agreement is not sitting well with progressive judicial advocacy groups.
“Any deal that would result in President Biden’s four remaining circuit court nominees being denied a vote is categorically unacceptable,” Maggie Jo Buchanan, managing director of Demand Justice, said in a statement. “These are critical seats that have real impacts on everyday Americans ― we cannot allow Trump to fill them with radical extremists.”
“If Democratic Senators are already rolling over this easily while they still have power, we are in for trouble when Trump actually assumes office,” she said.
“Abandoning efforts to confirm pending Circuit Court nominees is unacceptable,” Svante Myrick, president of People For the American Way, said in a statement. “Each of these nominees will protect people’s fundamental rights ― exactly the opposite of Trump’s present and future judges. And as appeals court judges, they would have significantly more impact on justice for all, compared with trial court judges.”
Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, also denounced the judge deal.
“When senators return from the holiday break, Leader Schumer and senators must do whatever it takes — for as long as it takes — to confirm every single pending judicial nominee, including all circuit court nominees, to provide an important guardrail for our democracy,” Zwarensteyn said.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) cut a deal with Republicans to speed up votes on some of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees and to refrain from holding votes on others. AP
Schumer has been aggressively confirming Biden’s judges in the lame-duck period, to the point where Republicans are complaining about some of their GOP colleagues being absent for all these votes, thereby making it easier for Democrats to rack up wins.
One of the Republican senators who’s been missing for these votes is Vice President-elect JD Vance. He’s still an Ohio senator, but he tweeted on Tuesday that he’s too busy to pitch in with Senate business because he’s doing more important things, like helping Trump pick a new FBI director.
As it turned out, Vance screwed up by revealing this, since he inadvertently confirmed that Trump is planning to fire current FBI Director Chris Wray when he takes office. Vance also seemed to incur Trump’s indirect wrath for not being in the Senate to try to slow Democrats’ rapid-fire confirmations of Biden’s judges.
“The Democrats are trying to stack the Courts with Radical Left Judges on their way out the door,” the president-elect bellowed on social media Tuesday. “Republican Senators need to Show Up and Hold the Line — No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!”
Hours later, Vance was back in the Senate, voting against one of Biden’s nominees to an Oregon federal court. And his tweet was deleted.
