President Joe Biden fell just short of an ambitious goal of appointing 100 federal judges in the first two years of his administration, seating 97 judges in federal district and appeals courts, beating his predecessor’s mark of 85 judges, the New York Times reports.
Despite having a 50-50 Senate and equal Party representation on the Senate Judiciary Committee that interviews judicial nominees, more than three-quarters of the 126 nominees passed through committee. And they did it with the predicted Republican assholes obstructing: In total, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley voted for only one of the nominees and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, two. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse really risked their GOP support by voting for five nominees.
Biden has nearly as many Appeals Court judges–28 versus 30–as Donald Trump and surpassed the number of District Court judges of his predecessor, 68 to 53. Trump, of course, inherited an open Supreme Court seat and appointed one other Justice, while Biden has appointed one, the first Black female on the Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson.