The administration of President Joe Biden and his Democrat Party want to ram through every judicial nominee they can before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated, but their plan will not work.
As Republicans prepared to slow the Democrats from appointing judges, the two parties struck a last-minute deal to allow votes for a handful of district court judges provided the Democrats halted the votes for four higher-tier circuit court judicial nominees, Fox News reported.
The deal will give the president-elect the ability to appoint and confirm four crucial appellate court judges and dozens more.
A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke to Fox News that the trade included four circuit nominees that lack the votes to get confirmed – “for more than triple the number of additional judges moving forward.”
“I’m glad that Republican senators are starting to show up to vote because some of the worst nominees are still awaiting confirmation precisely because they didn’t have adequate support,” JCN President Carrie Severino said to Fox News.
“When Trump comes into office, he’s going to have dozens more vacancies to fill,” she said. “And that’s not even counting the judges who will take senior status over the next four years.”
CAPAction senior director of courts and legal policy Devon Ombres said “Frankly, I’m at a loss as to why they would get here.”
“It would be nice to see Democratic leadership and the White House try and push through and fill those vacancies where possible,” he said.
Ombres predicted that circuit judges appointed mainly by former president George W. Bush will take senior status, giving the president-elect additional vacancies to fill. He also predicted that judges appointed by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama would not take senior status.