Senate Confirmed Biden’s 235th Judge, Surpassing Trump’s First-Term Total
The Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s 235th judge to a lifetime appointment on Friday evening, which surpassed the number of judicial vacancies that President-elect Donald Trump filled during his first term.
He accomplished this feat even though he only had 42 vacancies when he entered office — significantly fewer than the 108 vacancies Trump had when he started his presidency.
The U.S. Senate, which currently has a Democratic majority, rushed to confirm as many Biden-appointed judges as possible before Trump enters office. The party will lose its Senate majority when the newly elected Congress is sworn in Jan. 3.
Since the 2024 election, the Senate has confirmed dozens of Biden-appointed judges. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) expressed that judicial confirmations would be a top priority.
Many of Biden’s judges have or plan to protect voting rights and democracy. Judges include multiple voting rights attorneys, such as Dale Ho to the District Court for the Southern District of New York and Nancy Abudu to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which represents Alabama, Florida and Georgia and has heard several crucial voting rights cases.
The record for most judicial vacancies ever filled by a single president goes to former President Ronald Reagan with a total of 382 lifetime appointments, which he accomplished in two terms. However, Biden appointed the largest number of diverse judges of any president.
About two-thirds of his judge appointments are women, and about two-thirds are people of color. This specifically includes many women of color.
The 235th Biden judge confirmed by the Senate was Serena Murillo to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Murillo is a Latina woman who previously served as the co-chair of the Los Angeles Superior Court Latino Judicial Officers Association and is the president-elect of California Women Judges.
Biden appointed more women and LGBTQ+ individuals to the federal bench than any other president. He also enhanced career diversity, nominating more public defenders to circuit court judgeships than any other president.
Most notably, Biden put Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson on the U.S. Supreme Court, the first Black woman and public defender to serve on the nation’s highest court.
Biden also appointed the first Navajo and Muslim American to the federal bench.
Trump will likely have the opportunity to fill more judgeships once his second term starts on Jan. 20, but there are currently only 36 vacancies — the fewest number of vacant federal judgeships in over three decades.
Note: Democracy Docket’s judge appointment totals only include Article III judges, who serve lifetime appointments.
This story was updated at 7:05 p.m. on Dec. 20 to add that the Senate voted to confirm Serena Murillo to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.