Key Point: “The Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s 200th judicial nominee on Wednesday, a significant milestone both in terms of the number of lifetime federal judges he has confirmed and the astounding diversity he has infused into the nation’s courts. … He has put more women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people and professionally diverse people into lifetime federal judgeships than any of his predecessors, and in some cases, more than any of them combined.” 

HuffPost: ‘A Major Milestone’: Senate Confirms Joe Biden’s 200th Lifetime Federal Judge

[Jennifer Bendery, 5/22/24]

• The Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s 200th judicial nominee on Wednesday, a significant milestone both in terms of the number of lifetime federal judges he has confirmed and the astounding diversity he has infused into the nation’s courts.

• With the Senate’s confirmation of Angela Martinez to a U.S. district court in Arizona, Biden surpassed the number of lifetime federal judges that Donald Trump had confirmed by the same point in his presidency. Trump, who made judicial confirmations a major focus of his presidency, was at 196 at this point in his presidency.

• It is the diversity of Biden’s judges, though, that really jumps out. He has put more women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people and professionally diverse people into lifetime federal judgeships than any of his predecessors, and in some cases, more than any of them combined.

• Nearly two-thirds of Biden’s judges are women (127), and nearly two-thirds are people of color (125). About 40% of Biden’s judges are women of color (79).

• The professional diversity of Biden’s judges is also off the charts. More than 40% of them (85) have backgrounds as public defenders or civil rights lawyers ― a huge break from the centuries-long tradition of plucking people for federal judgeships from their jobs as prosecutors or corporate attorneys.

• Biden has ushered in historic firsts for the federal bench, too. He appointed the first openly LGBTQ+ woman to serve on a U.S. appeals court, Judge Beth Robinson of the 2nd Court of Appeals. He appointed the first Muslim American federal judge, Zahid Quraishi, to a U.S. district court. He has appointed four Native American people to lifetime federal judgeships, which is half of all the Native American federal judges appointed in U.S. history.

• And, of course, Biden appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman and former public defender to serve on the nation’s top court.

• “This is a major milestone,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) celebrated on the Senate floor ahead of Martinez’s vote. “Simply put, our 200 judges comprise the most diverse slate of judicial nominations under any president in American history.”