On December 24, 2024, President Joe Biden of the United States vetoed legislation that sought to add 66 new judges to understaffed federal courts nationwide. The legislation was originally a bipartisan bill widely supported and marked the first significant expansion of the federal judiciary since 1990.
The “JUDGES Act” initially garnered support from many lawmakers from both parties and aimed to increase the number of trial judges in 25 federal district courts in 13 states (including California, Florida, and Texas) every two years in six installments until 2035.
Hundreds of judges appointed by bipartisan presidents publicly supported the bill, citing a more than 30% increase in federal cases since the last comprehensive expansion of the judicial branch legislation passed by Congress.
However, the outgoing Democratic President fulfilled his threat issued on December 10 and vetoed the bill passed in the Republican-led House of Representatives by a vote of 236 to 173 just two days later.
In his official veto letter to the Senate, Biden described the bill as “rash” for adding new judge positions without addressing the key questions of whether there is a need for new judges and how to allocate these positions nationwide.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Senator Todd Young of Indiana, criticized the Democratic President’s veto as “the worst display of partisan politics.”
The proponents of the bill hoped to dispel legislators’ long-standing concerns about creating new positions by spreading the new judge positions across three presidential terms to prevent a scenario where a partisan President could fill all these positions.
The bill received unanimous approval in the Democratic-led Senate in August but faced delays in the Republican-led House until President-elect Donald Trump won the election on November 5, providing him the opportunity to appoint the initial 25 judges, prompting a vote in the House on the bill.
This led to accusations from senior House Democrats who began opposing the bill, accusing their Republican colleagues of going against a core legislative commitment of allowing the House to vote on the bill in case of uncertain election outcomes.
If the bill had passed, Trump would have been able to fill 22 permanent judge positions and three temporary judge positions during his four-year term, in addition to his plan to appoint over 100 judges.
These appointments would have further solidified Trump’s influence in the judiciary. During his first term, he appointed 234 judicial officers, including three members in the 6-3 conservative majority in the Supreme Court.
As of the previous Friday, Biden surpassed Trump in the total number of judicial appointments with 235, despite appointing fewer appellate judges during his term, with only one being a Supreme Court Justice.
(This article is based on reports from Reuters)