Congress passes Young-backed bill to add more U.S. judges, but veto looms
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A bill that would create dozens of new federal judgeships across the country received final approval in Congress on Thursday morning, setting up a likely veto from President Joe Biden even as his administration pushes to confirm his final nominees to fill existing judicial vacancies.
The bill to establish the Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solved, or JUDGES, Act of 2024, was co-authored by U.S. Sen. Todd Young (R-Indiana) and U.S. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware).
Democrats initially supported the JUDGES Act, which was touted as a rare example of bipartisanship after its unanimous passage in the Senate over the summer. Advocates say the new judgeships are urgently needed to help judges in 25 federal court districts manage their growing caseloads. It would be the first major expansion of the federal court system in more than three decades.
But the White House announced this week that Biden would veto the bill, and leading Democratic lawmakers who had supported it are questioning it, as well, wary of handing President-elect Donald Trump a trove of new federal judicial vacancies to fill once he takes office.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Jerry Nadler (New York), top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, questioned why Republicans had waited until after the presidential election to move the bill through the House.
“The JUDGES Act was carefully designed to be considered before the election,” a spokesperson for Durbin said in a statement. “The Senate passed the bill in early August, and the House had plenty of time to take it up before November. Instead, House Republicans stonewalled bipartisan efforts to move the legislation, and it changed the political environment completely.”
If Biden vetoes the bill, a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate would be required to override it. The House vote Thursday was 236-173. Congress is scheduled to recess for the holidays Dec. 20 and won’t return until Jan. 3 to be sworn in for a new term.
If the veto stands, the Republican-ruled Congress could resurrect the bill in the new year – reintroducing it in the Senate, passing it in both chambers and handing it off for Trump to sign into law.
But the new version of the bill might look vastly different, Gabe Roth of court transparency group Fix the Court said. Roth suggested that Republicans may change the text of the bill to increase the number of judges Trump could appoint.
“With unified government, why would [Republicans] limit themselves?” Roth said.
The JUDGES Act would create new judgeships every two years, beginning in 2025 and ending in 2035, affording the next two to three presidents the opportunity to appoint judges. Thirteen states, including Indiana, California, Florida, New York and Texas, would receive new judgeships. It would add 66 new federal judgeships in the most overburdened areas of the country, including Indianapolis and the Southern District of Indiana.
Over the past 20 years, the number of civil cases pending more than three years in federal court rose 346 percent, according to the Judicial Conference, the policymaking body of the U.S. Courts. There were more than 80,000 such cases as of March 31, the conference said.
Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr., director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, hailed the bill’s passage Thursday, noting that the measure would improve judicial administration and access to justice by “adding critically needed new judgeships.”
In a statement, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) urged Biden not to veto the measure, saying Democrats would be “standing in the way of progress, simply because of partisan politics.”
“This should not be a political issue – it should be about prioritizing the needs of the American people and ensuring the courts are able to deliver fair, impartial, and timely justice,” Johnson said.
In the Senate, meanwhile, lawmakers advanced Biden’s last two nominees out of the Judiciary Committee on Thursday, teeing up floor votes that will likely happen next week and could result in the confirmation of Biden’s 234th and 235th judicial nominees. Trump appointed 234 judges during his first term.
Democrats have been racing to confirm as many of Biden’s nominees as possible before Trump returns to power in January. The Senate has confirmed more than a dozen nominees since Election Day. The most recent was Noël Wise, who was confirmed to a seat in the Northern District of California on Wednesday.
Wise’s confirmation is part of a Senate deal Democrats struck with Republicans to advance all of Biden’s remaining district court nominees in exchange for dropping his four appeals court nominees, all of whom lawmakers said didn’t have the votes needed for a Senate confirmation. Those four include Ryan Y. Park to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit; Julia M. Lipez to the 1st Circuit; Karla M. Campbell to the 6th Circuit and Adeel A. Mangi to the 3rd Circuit. On Thursday, the White House announced that Park withdrew his nomination to the Richmond-based appeals court.
Biden’s nominees include more women, people of color and LGBTQ individuals than those nominated by any other president in U.S. history.
If confirmed before Dec. 20, Serena R. Murillo would be the 150th woman and 24th Latina judge confirmed under Biden, according to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Benjamin J. Cheeks would be the 63rd Black judge confirmed during the administration, setting a record for most Black judges confirmed during a presidency of any length, according to the group.