'If You Can Keep It': The Future Of The Federal Judiciary

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🗓️ 16 December 2024

⏱️ 38 minutes

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Summary

Last week, the House passed a bill to create 63 new permanent judgeships. Case backlogs and delays have had many lawmakers saying we need more federal judges. If the bill did become law, President-elect Donald Trump would have 22 new seats to fill. The legislation originally had bipartisan support, but President Joe Biden vowed to veto it, with the support of many Democrats.

In his first term, Trump put more judges in place than almost any president in history. Biden has made his mark too, nearly matching that number. As of last week, he had also put more judges of color on the bench than any of his predecessors.

Federal judges almost always serve life terms, meaning each of these picks can have lasting consequences for Americans.

We look back and look ahead at our federal judiciary.

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0:30.6	Last week, the House passed a bill to create 63 new permanent judgeships.
0:36.3	Case backlogs and delays have had many lawmakers saying we need more federal judges now.
0:41.3	If the bill becomes law, President-elect Trump would have 22 new judgeships to fill. The bill originally had bipartisan support, but President Biden vowed last week to veto it with the support of many Democrats.
0:48.3	Here's Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reacting on the Senate floor last week.
0:52.3	It's hard to imagine. The justification for blocking the Judges Act that doesn't smack of naked
0:59.6	partisanship. It's almost inconceivable that a lame duck president would consider
1:05.6	vetoing such an obviously prudential step for any reason other than selfish spite.
1:13.1	Trump's federal judge appointments in his first term far outpaced other recent presidents.
1:18.5	Now Biden has made his mark two surpassing that number.
1:21.8	Biden has also put more judges of color on the bench than any of his predecessors.
1:26.4	Federal judges almost always serve life terms,
1:29.3	meaning each of these picks can have lasting consequences for Americans. So for this week's
1:34.1	installment of if you can keep it, we're going to look back and look ahead at our federal judiciary
1:39.4	with the help of three guests. I'm Jen White. You're listening to the 1A podcast where we get to the heart
1:44.8	of the story. We've got a lot to get into after the break. Stay with us.
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