The Senate confirmed President Biden's 235th judicial nominee on Friday, surpassing the record of 234 judges confirmed during President-elect Trump's first term.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.N.Y.) praised Selena Raquel Murillo after the Senate confirmed her as district judge for the Central District of California.
“This majority has confirmed more judges under President Biden than any majority has confirmed in decades. This is historic!” Schumer announced on the Senate floor.
“We're confirming more judges than under the Trump administration, more judges than any administration this century, and more judges than any administration in decades ago.”
Biden appointed one Supreme Court justice (Ketanji Brown Jackson), 45 appellate court judges, 187 district judges, and two International Trade Court judges.
Two-thirds of the judges are women, two-thirds are minorities, and two-fifths are minority women.
Schumer noted that currently one in four active federal judges has been nominated by Biden and confirmed by the Democratic majority in the Senate.
He said Biden's nominees to the court include former consumer protection lawyers, labor lawyers, voting rights experts, civil rights lawyers, federal prosecutors, public defenders and teachers.
“For a long time, it was customary to give preference to judicial candidates who came from privileged backgrounds. Most of them came from prosecutors or big corporate law firms. Most were men, most were white. But with the Senate Democratic majority, we cast an even wider net,” he said.
Schumer said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) continues to spearhead the administration's efforts to file the necessary documents to advance nominees, shuffling through the list of nominees. I expressed my gratitude for the gift.
“The Biden administration had fewer vacancies to fill than the Trump administration, in fact, less than half. Yet we succeeded more than anyone had hoped. 235 judges recognized ” Durbin said on the floor.
The Senate approved 234 judicial nominees during Trump's first four years in the White House.
The Senate approved 170 nominees for attorney general over President Barack Obama's eight years and 204 of President George W. Bush's 204 nominees for attorney general over eight years.
