Biden reportedly expected to nominate judges with legal backgrounds 'historically underrepresented

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

on the federal bench'

For decades, NBC News notes, the Republican Party has been the political faction emphasizing the courts in the United States, but now Democrats appear to be playing catch-up as they look to fill several federal vacancies before the mid-terms in 2022 when they could lose their slim Senate majority.

If they do fill the seats, White House Counsel Dana Remus recently wrote in a letter to senators that was obtained by NBC, it will likely be with "individuals whose legal experiences have been historically underrepresented on the federal bench, including those whose who are public defenders, civil rights and legal aid attorneys, and those who represent Americans in every walk of life" rather than, say, prosecutors or "big corporate lawyers."

Chris Kang, a co-founder of the progressive group Demand Justice and former deputy counsel in the Obama administration, similarly told NBC he expects President Biden's first set of judiciary nominees are "going to look very different than the kind of judges that Democratic presidents have put forward in the past" and will likely have "radically" different backgrounds, which "will make a huge difference in our courts." Read more at NBC News.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-reportedly-expected-nominate-judges-201921100.html

[Karadeniz]

1. OK by me!

[crickets]

2. Good! K&R for visibility.

[Retrograde]

3. Sounds good to me

and if he gets a Supreme Court opening or three, how about someone who lives and went to law school west of the Hudson (yeah, I know, Goody Barrett is from Indiana) for a change.

[Hekate]

4. KnR

[StarfishSaver]

5. I hope be also goes back to the tradition of nominating civil rights lawyers to the bench

Opinion: The Biden administration must go into overdrive to reclaim our courts
Washington Post OpEd

By Derrick Johnson and Leslie Proll

Four years of court-packing by President Donald Trump and then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) filled our federal judiciary with extremist judges opposed to civil rights. Fortunately, President Biden can begin reforming the courts immediately.

Fueled by the Black vote, the Democratic wins for Georgia’s two seats in the Senate — which confirms federal judicial nominees — give Biden this opportunity. He has inherited two vacancies on the appellate courts and 47 on district courts, with more vacancies expected. Numerous judges appointed by presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are eligible to take senior status, which would create vacancies, and several have already announced their intent to do so. By nominating a bold and diverse slate of judges, the new president can start to reclaim the courts, seat by seat. The fierce urgency of now should be a guiding principle when it comes to restoring fairness and true representation on our federal courts.

It is difficult to overstate the harm four years of Trump’s judicial appointments caused. Many of the 234 federal judges Trump installed in lifetime jobs are dangerous ideologues who were confirmed despite long records of hostility to civil rights. Although it is true that Trump appointees held the line on overturning the 2020 presidential election, many of his appellate judges, for example, have issued extremist decisions decidedly to the right of the conservativism reflected in appointments by past Republican presidents. These decisions, which will have impact for decades, represent a clear and present danger to the progress of civil rights.

We need to resurrect the path of the civil rights lawyer to the federal bench. Such civil rights legal giants as ­Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker ­Motley, Robert Carter, Nathaniel Jones and U.W. Clemon were appointed to judgeships between the administrations of John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter. But recent Democratic administrations have eschewed that practice, leaving our courts with very few judges who practiced civil rights law. We need such lawyers and other progressives back on the bench to bring some balance to courts around the country.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-biden-administration-must-go-into-overdrive-to-reclaim-our-courts/2021/01/23/c1c589a6-5cc2-11eb-b8bd-ee36b1cd18bf_story.html