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WASHINGTON (CN) — The Senate on Tuesday evening helped the Biden administration across a major milestone, as it confirmed the White House’s 150th federal judge this term.
The upper chamber narrowly approved a pair of district court nominees, Julia Kobick and Kenly Kato, to fill two district court vacancies in Massachusetts and California. Kobick, who became the White House’s 150th confirmed federal judge Tuesday evening, cleared the Senate with bipartisan support.
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin was the only Democrat to vote against Kobick’s nomination to the District of Massachusetts.
Kato, tapped nearly two years ago to join the Central District of California, was confirmed without any Republican support in a 51-46 vote. The magistrate judge had a winding path to the federal bench — President Biden appointed her to the California vacancy in December 2021, but the Senate Judiciary Committee failed to report her nomination in March 2022. The panel reconsidered in February and narrowly voted to advance the appointment.
The White House has been somewhat sluggish in nominating jurists for the dozens of federal court vacancies across the country. With just a year left before the 2024 presidential election, it is unclear whether President Biden will be able to match the 234 federal judges confirmed under former President Trump.
However, Carl Tobias, chair of the University of Richmond School of Law, said Tuesday that things were looking up.
“Biden is very close to Trump in total nominees confirmed and seems likely to match or surpass Trump by the end of the term,” he said.
At the end of November 2019, Tobias observed, then-President Trump had confirmed 45 circuit court judges and 110 district judges, bringing his total number of confirmations to 155 — on par with Biden’s current figures. The Senate is scheduled to take up four more of the White House’s circuit court nominees and as many as 16 district court nominees, he added.
The possibility of a government shutdown — which could happen if the Republican-controlled House is unable to pass budget legislation before a stopgap spending bill expires next week — could blow a hole in the White House’s confirmation efforts, Tobias said.
Civil rights interest group the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights applauded the Biden administration’s milestone, saying the 150 confirmed judges “represent highly qualified and demographically diverse individuals,” and adding that nearly half have experience as public defenders or civil rights lawyers.
“These diverse legal backgrounds have long been excluded from and underrepresented in our federal courts,” the organization said in a statement Tuesday. “The importance of adding this kind of experience to the bench cannot be overstated.”
Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee is hard at work approving the Biden administration’s newest federal court nominees. The panel is scheduled Thursday to vote on a pair of particularly controversial appointments: Mustafa Kasubhai, nominated to the District of Oregon; and Eumi Lee, tapped by the White House to fill a vacancy on the Northern District of California.
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