Author: Nate Raymond and Dan Burns
(Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday vetoed legislation to add 66 new judges to understaffed federal courts across the country, a once broadly bipartisan measure that would have been the first to change the federal judiciary since 1990. First major expansion.
The Judges Act, which was initially supported by many members of both parties, would add 25 federal district courts in 13 states, including California, Florida and Texas, in six waves every two years through 2035. Number of judges in the court of first instance.
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Hundreds of judges appointed by presidents from both parties have given rare public support for the bill, saying the number of federal cases has increased by more than 30% since Congress last passed legislation to comprehensively expand the judiciary.
But the outgoing Democratic president followed through on a veto threat he issued two days before the bill passed the Republican-led House of Representatives on Dec. 12 by a vote of 236 to 173.
In a message to the Senate formally rejecting the bill, Biden said the bill “rushed” to create new judicial positions without addressing key issues such as whether new judges are needed and how they will be distributed across the country.
Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young, who sponsored the bill in the Senate, responded by calling the veto “partisan politics at its worst.”
The bill’s sponsors hope to address lawmakers’ longstanding concerns about creating new vacancies for opposition presidents to fill by staggering new judicial positions across three presidential administrations.
The bill won unanimous approval in the Democratic-led Senate in August. But the bill lingered in the Republican-led House and was not brought up for a vote until Republican President-elect Donald Trump won the Nov. 5 election and had the opportunity to appoint the first 25 justices.
That prompted accusations from top House Democrats who began to abandon the measure, saying their Republican colleagues were violating the core promise of the legislation by having lawmakers approve the bill without anyone knowing who would appoint the first judges. .
If the bill passes, Trump would be able to fill 22 permanent and three temporary judge positions over the course of his four-year term, in addition to the more than 100 judicial appointees he is expected to appoint.
The appointments will allow Trump to further solidify his influence over the judicial branch. He made 234 judicial appointments during his first term, including three members of the 6-3 conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Biden’s total of 235 judicial appointments on Friday exceeded Trump’s total, although he has appointed fewer appellate judges during his term and only appointed one to the U.S. Supreme Court.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Dan Burns in New York; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Nicholas Young)
