Joe Biden Leaves a Complicated Legacy on the Federal Courts

Biden vetoed a bill to add dozens of new federal judges to the bench, apparently fearful that Donald Trump would get to appoint them.
Biden vetoed a bill to add dozens of new federal judges to the bench, apparently fearful that Donald Trump would get to appoint them.
Susan Walsh/AP
Share
Biden vetoed a bill to add dozens of new federal judges to the bench, apparently fearful that Donald Trump would get to appoint them.
Biden vetoed a bill to add dozens of new federal judges to the bench, apparently fearful that Donald Trump would get to appoint them.
Susan Walsh/AP
Joe Biden Leaves a Complicated Legacy on the Federal Courts
Copy

President Joe Biden’s farewell to elected office on Jan. 20, 2025, presents an opportunity to reflect on the legacy he left on the federal courts.

As president, Biden’s primary legacy involves his historical efforts to diversify the federal bench in terms of the race, gender, sexual orientation and religion of his judicial nominees.

Biden appointed more women to the bench than any president before him, as well as the most racially and ethnically diverse group of judges in the nation’s history, including Ketanji Brown Jackson, the nation’s first Black, female Supreme Court justice. Biden also appointed an unusually large number of former public defenders to judgeships.

But Biden’s judicial legacy spans decades and reaches far beyond the makeup of the current Supreme Court.

Read the full article on The Conversation.

A thin-on-details report completes the first phase of an overdue study legislative leaders and the governor want from the agency facing $32.6 million FY2026 deficit
Interim President Rosemary Costigan and Hudson County’s Christopher Reber to participate in June forums as decision nears
Paxson, who has led Brown since 2012, will continue her presidency amid major campus initiatives and national challenges in higher education
Johnson & Wales University has lost more than 50% of its college population since 2011. A looming “demographic cliff” is expected to reduce that number even further, prompting JWU officials to consider how best to prepare for the financial consequences of lower student enrollment