Why Biden’s judges are different — and what that means for the Supreme Court
President Joe Biden’s judges are different.
Not only are they different from those of President Donald Trump, but Biden’s judicial nominees are different from those of any president before him.
In three ways, the first year of Biden’s judicial selections tells an important story about the effect the president is looking to have on the judiciary — a story that provides the clearest available information about how Biden will likely choose his first Supreme Court nominee.
First, the Biden administration, learning from the history of past Democratic administrations and from Biden’s own history on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has moved quickly on nominations — outpacing even the Trump administration’s quick judicial moves. In Biden’s first year in office, the Senate confirmed 13 appeals court nominees. Because the Supreme Court hears only a limited number of cases, these intermediate court judges have the final say over most cases in the federal courts. [Continue reading…]