Biden's federal judges will keep Trump, GOP in check
Few Americans know the names Benjamin J. Cheeks and Serena R. Murillo. But they recently became part of President Joe Biden's most lasting legacy.
Cheeks, who is Black, and Murillo, a Latina, were the last two federal judges named by Biden and confirmed by the Senate before it adjourned for the year. They brought Biden's total during his four years in office to 235 judicial appointments — one more judge than Donald Trump installed on the bench during his first term.
This is not just a matter of bragging rights or historical markers. As the new year dawns, with Republicans controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, federal judges will play a vital role in monitoring Trump's attempts to dismantle Biden-era programs and enact his own policies of dubious legality.
"I don't know exactly what (Trump will) do. But I can tell you this: The judiciary will be one of our strongest — if not our strongest — barrier against what he does," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told Politico.
The federal judiciary has always played an important part in national decision-making, but the impact of the courts vastly accelerated after the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 that legalized abortion. A series of judicial rulings, not legislative measures, set policy on incendiary issues ranging from same-sex marriage to religion in public spaces.
"Somehow, almost every controversy makes its way to the courts," Joshua Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston, told the Washington Post.
Marge Baker, executive vice president of People for the American Way, added on NBC: "These courts make decisions that affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people. They decide questions about voting rights, about consumer rights, about workers' rights, about antitrust laws, about climate change, about abortion. There's just a whole range of issues where these courts of appeals are often the final deciders."
Trump's personal lifestyle — three wives, prideful sexual aggression, no discernible religious faith — hardly squares with the values of conservative Christians. But he shrewdly understood the political benefits of promising to appoint judges that supported their religious values. In November, almost one-quarter of voters identified as white evangelicals, and 82% of them backed Trump.
Trump kept his promise on judges in his first term, and Democrats have openly copied his strategy. Republicans, Schumer told Politico, adopted the adage, " 'We've got to control the bench' and they made every effort to do it. When I became majority leader, I said, 'This is something we have to work on, we have to focus on.'
"We would go to members and persuade them in two ways: Persuade some of them to vote for these judges because the Republicans threw all kinds of charges — mainly false — against them," explained Schumer. "And second, I had to persuade them that this was really important. And one of the most important things we could do with our floor time, particularly in '23, '24, when there was a Republican House."
Schumer succeeded. Not only did Democrats break Trump's record of appointments, if only barely, they convinced at least three older judges who were contemplating retirement to remain on the bench after the election, depriving Trump of critical vacancies. Republicans were outraged, but this is hypocrisy of the first order, given Trump's deliberate and decisive use of judges as political tools.
Biden's legacy is not just about numbers; he vastly broadened the professional profiles that his nominees bring to the job. Instead of the usual backgrounds, mainly government and corporate lawyers, Biden appointed "more than 45 public defenders, more than 25 civil rights lawyers and at least 10 individuals who have represented workers," according to White House records.
He made an even bigger impact in terms of race and gender, starting with Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Of Biden's 235 total selections, Cheeks was the 63rd Black judge to be confirmed, while Murillo was the 150th woman and 24th Latin person.
Other judges confirmed earlier in Biden's term include Zahid N. Quraishi, the first Muslim to sit on a federal district bench; Sara Hill, a member of the Cherokee Nation and Oklahoma's first female Native American federal judge; and Beth Robinson, the first openly gay woman to serve on any federal appeals court.
This record, boasted Schumer, is "an accomplishment that will last generations," and he's correct. Remember that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was appointed by President George Bush in 1991, and is still serving more than 33 years later.
Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University.
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