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The White House is working quietly with Senate Democrats to ensure President Biden has a steady stream of federal court candidates, according to people familiar with the matter and an administration official.
Why is this important: Biden wants the federal justice system to better reflect the country’s demographics and tries to protect his developing legislative agenda from a justice system currently dominated by Trump appointees.
- While Democrats control the White House and the Senate, liberal-minded federal judges are already announcing their retirement.
- The first announcements of administration candidates are expected this month, but could slip into April.
The plot: Allies outside the White House say DC District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is black and 50, will likely be nominated for a place in the prestigious DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
- This could prepare her for the Supreme Court if Justice Stephen Breyer, 82, retires.
Driving the news: The White House has 10 appeals court openings, including two at the DC appeals court, and approximately 60 vacant positions in federal district courts.
- It emphasizes not only ethnic diversity but also the backgrounds and experience of applicants, seeking to attract judges outside the usual pool of corporate appeal attorneys.
- Age will matter, but not as much as it does for Trump.
- “We make sure a pipeline is ready,” said an administration official. “We want a steady supply.”
- Biden may not be able to match the former president’s imprint on the courts – he has secured 234 confirmed federal justices, including three Supreme Court justices – but has signaled Democrats that he is planning to act quickly to fill vacancies as it could.
Between the lines: In December, the new White House legal adviser Dana Remus asked Democratic senators to send the names of potential United States District Court judges to the White House within 45 days of any vacancy announcement. .
- The White House will take the head of the most powerful justices of the Circuit Court, one step below the Supreme Court.
- He is also considering announcing a slate of candidates, as President George W. Bush did at a ceremony at the Rose Garden in May 2001.
- The strategy would be to explode the public – and the Senate – with a display of diversity while showing strength in numbers.
What they say: “If you have a roster of judges, it gives you the opportunity to have various public defenders, civil rights attorneys, and labor attorneys to really show the breadth of the legal profession and what Biden is trying to accomplish. a way you can’t with just one or two judges, ”said Christopher Kang, co-founder and chief counsel of Demand Justice.
- The Biden administration is not ready to publicly disclose its strategy.
- “It is less a question of whether the first appointment is singular or plural,” said the administration official. “The lesson learned is that you have to have a steady rhythm of nominees.”
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