'Pretty damn good': Why Biden’s goal to 'Trump-proof' the courts has been deemed a success

Before he left office, President Joe Biden communicated his intent to confirm as many federal judges as possible in order to deny his successor the ability to pack the judiciary with far-right activists. That plan seems to have borne fruit, according to a new report.

In a Friday article, Politico's Anthony Adragna wrote that Democrats' "fight to Trump-proof the federal judiciary" has been an overwhelming success. On Friday night, the Democratic-run U.S. Senate confirmed Biden's 235th judicial appointment, officially putting him past President-elect Donald Trump's 234 judges with a month left to go before Biden leaves the White House.

According to NBC, among those 235 judges include one Supreme Court justice in Ketanji Brown Jackson (who replaced Justice Stephen Breyer after he retired), along with 45 powerful U.S. Court of Appeals judges, 187 U.S. District Court judges and two judges on the U.S. Court of International Trade. All federal judges serve lifelong terms, meaning many of Biden's 235 judicial appointments — roughly one-quarter of the entire federal judiciary — will likely be on the bench for decades to come.

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As of December 20, Trump now has just 47 total federal court vacancies, which includes 36 currently vacant seats and 11 future vacancies once judges follow through on their retirements. To compare, Trump began his first term in 2017 with a whopping 112 empty seats and 15 additional vacancies to fill from retiring judges.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) recently negotiated a deal with Republicans in which he would decline to hold confirmation votes for four of Biden's U.S. Court of Appeals judges in exchange for them allowing more U.S. District Court nominees to be confirmed. Schumer defended the deal by saying the four judges in question didn't have enough votes among the Senate Democratic Caucus to be confirmed. And one of those judges — James Wynn of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals — reneged on his retirement after hearing of the deal, meaning Republicans now only inherit three of those four appellate court vacancies.

“Two years, we’ve had a tied Senate and a tied committee, [and] we reported out almost 100 judges,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told Politico. “Pretty good, huh? You can’t say yes, but I’ll say it for you: Pretty damn good.”

When the new Republican Senate majority is sworn in next month, Durbin will hand over the reins of the Judiciary Committee to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). He has so far said he would keep the tradition of "blue slips" under his chairmanship, in which a U.S. District Court judge's nomination won't move forward unless both senators from that judge's respective state sign off on their nomination.

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Click here to read Politico's report in its entirety.