by Jorge Gomez • 4 minutes
The U.S. Senate has confirmed 205 federal judges during the Biden administration. As of August 12, President Biden is tied with President Donald Trump on judicial confirmations.
Some reports suggest, however, that Biden is on track to surpass Trump’s total of 234. Courthouse News Service (CNS) estimates that Biden could get up to 238 judges by the end of his term.
“There are currently more than two dozen Biden nominees left to be confirmed before the election. That figure includes 21 judicial candidates who have passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and are pending on the floor. Six more nominees are awaiting a committee vote and another six have yet to get a hearing,” per CNS. “If all these nominees are confirmed, Biden could round out his term—barring any new nominees from the White House—with 238 judges, just barely edging out Trump’s record.”
On paper, that could happen. Yes, there are enough nominees in the pipeline who are working their way through the confirmation process. But the President and his party could have trouble getting certain ones confirmed. There’s been considerable controversy and opposition raised about several Biden judicial picks.
First Liberty previously warned about the nomination of Adeel Mangi for the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Mangi has a concerning affiliation with the Rutgers Center for Security, Race and Rights—a radical organization that promotes anti-Semitism and praises terrorist groups.
Mangi’s nomination has drawn considerable opposition from a broad coalition, including 21 police organizations, five Jewish groups, 10 Republican members of Congress, all Republican members of the Judiciary Committee and at least three Senate Democrats. Mangi is waiting for a final confirmation vote. His nomination will expire at the end of the 118th Congress. Given the vast opposition, judicial experts think there may not be a path forward for Mangi to be confirmed.
In addition to Mangi, there’s Karla Campbell, another nominee with ties to a radical, anti-Semitic organization.
During her confirmation hearing, Campbell faced intense question from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding her prior work for Workers’ Dignity, an organization that holds views far outside the mainstream, particularly on immigration, the police, public safety and labor. Several Senators on the committee expressed opposition to her nomination. Campbell is also pending a confirmation on the Senate floor.
Similar to Mangi and Campbell, President Biden’s nomination of Ryan Y. Park for the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has raised red flags. As solicitor general of North Carolina, Park argued a case in which he defended Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive order during COVID limiting worship services in church to 10 people. However, the state’s restrictions did not apply the 10-person limit to grocery stores, shopping centers, libraries, transit stations, medical facilities or other businesses. This raises concerns about how he will approach free exercise cases.
Park was grilled on this issue during his confirmation hearing. When asked about it, Park responded by saying he’d “had a brief involvement in that case,” when he was, in fact, the attorney of record.
In a joint statement, both North Carolina Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd said, “This nomination is a non-starter and the White House has already been informed they do not have the votes for confirmation.” Park is still waiting for a Judiciary Committee vote to determine whether he’ll advance to the Senate floor for final confirmation.
There’s also Noel Wise—nominated for a federal district court in California—who argued that laws that lay out a clear difference between two genders violate “separation of Church and State.” She wrote in an article that thinking about gender as only “two tidy boxes” makes it “virtually impossible for judges to consistently apply a law that permits or prohibits conduct based on whether someone is a man or a woman.”
During her confirmation hearing, Wise faced intense questions regarding her controversial statements. Several senators were highly concerned that she espoused these outlandish legal theories.
There’s precedent showing that this controversial pick could be rejected. In July, the U.S. Judiciary Committee voted 11-10 to reject the nomination of Sarah Netburn for a district court seat in New York.
Sen. Jon Ossoff—a Democrat from Georgia—broke party lines and voted with Republicans to block Netburn’s nomination from advancing to the full floor. It was the first time during Biden’s presidency that the Judiciary Committee voted to reject one of his nominees. Some prior nominations were stalled out or blocked before the committee could consider them, but never voted down.
“The Senate Judiciary Committee rightly rejected the nomination of Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn to be a U.S. District Court Judge in the Southern District of New York,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who’s the Ranking Member on the committee. “This was the first bipartisan rejection by committee vote of a radical judge sent to the committee by the Biden Administration.”
Netburn faced intense questioning during her confirmation hearing. She came under scrutiny for a 2022 recommendation that a biological male prisoner, identifying as a woman, be housed in a women’s prison.
First Liberty will keep a close eye on the confirmation process and keep you updated on how these nominees fare.
Learn More:
First Liberty: Judicial Nominee Grilled for Radical Views on Gender & First Amendment
First Liberty: One More Biden Nominee Connected to Radical, Anti-Israel Group
First Liberty: Biden Judicial Nominee Linked to Group Promoting Anti-Semitism
First Liberty: Biden Keeps Appointing Radical Nominees to America’s Judiciary
Related News:
Fox News: Biden, Dems race to beat Trump’s record on confirmed judges as election looms
Courthouse News Service: Biden on track to surpass federal judges confirmed under Trump
Townhall: Opinion | Democrats’ Radical Judicial Moves Reflect Biden’s Failed Legacy
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