Joe Biden judicial nominees represent diverse professional backgrounds
On Tuesday President Joe Biden announced his plan to nominate 11 candidates to the federal judiciary. Biden is the most recent president who has put forth this decision in the first 100 days. The slate of candidates reflects a range of diversity in both personal and professional backgrounds.
Biden said while announcing the slate,” This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession.”
He continued,” Each is deeply qualified and prepared to deliver justice faithfully under our Constitution and impartially to the American people- and together they represent the broad diversity of background, experience, and perspective that makes our nation strong.”
Among the nominee are jurists who have experience in military and family courts, professionals with backgrounds as public defenders and prosecutors, a county administrator, and an intellectual property lawyer.
The group also includes three black women nominated to serve on the powerful Circuit Courts, the first Muslim American to be nominated to a federal court, and the first Asian Pacific American woman to serve on the U.S.District Court for the District of Columbia.
Biden has promised to name Black women to Supreme Court, a commitment that put renewed scrutiny on the lack of diversity on the federal bench. The president’s first round of announcement signals an interest in diversifying the court system across multiple dimensions.
There are 68 vacancies on the federal judicial system, including seven appellate court vacancies and 61 district court vacancies. That count is less than the open Supreme Court seat, 86 district court seats, and 17 circuit courts seats that Trump was able to fill when entering office, but more than 44 district court vacancies and 13 Circuit Court vacancies inherited by former President Barack Obama.
Below are the nominees Biden has put forth to serve as jurists on the federal district and circuit courts.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Tiffany Cunningham, Candace Jackson- Akiwumi, Judge Deborah Boardman, Judge Zahid N.Quraishi, Regina Rodriguez.
