With the Senate voting Friday to confirm California jurist Serena Raquel Murillo, the number of judges given lifetime seats on the bench under President Joe Biden reached 235. Former President Donald Trump successfully nominated 234.
Afterward, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats heralded the occasion.
“Thanks to the hard work of this Senate Majority in confirming 235 qualified and historic judges, our courts are stronger. Our country is stronger. Our democracy is stronger. And that is something that every American can be proud of,” Schumer wrote on X.
Just weeks before Trump regains office and the Senate reverts to Republican control, Majority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin said the 235 judges “will be a lifelong frontline defense against attacks on our democracy and freedoms.”
The number of judges confirmed under Biden—45 for appeals courts, 187 for district courts, and two for the U.S. Court of International Trade—comprises about 25 percent of those who are active. As noted by The New York Times, about two-thirds of them are women, and the same proportion people of color.
One such nominee was Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who filled the absence left by retiring justice Stephen Breyer, for whom she once clerked.
Additionally, Biden successfully nominated the most former public defenders, of whom Jackson was one.
Yet Jackson was the sole high court justice Biden was able to see through, compared with three for Trump. The two oldest justices on the court, 76-year-old Clarence Thomas and 74-year-old Samuel Alito, are reliably conservative, and could present more vacancies for Trump once he takes office next month.
