Biden Has Appointed More Black Federal Judges Than Any Other President

President Joe Biden has appointed more federal judges of color than any president before him, and overtaking Donald Trump’s record for overall federal judge appointments in the process.

On Friday the Senate confirmed Biden’s judicial nominee for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California Benjamin Cheeks. With Cheeks’ confirmation, Biden has appointed 63 Black federal judges, the most of a presidency of any length, according to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Earlier this month, the Senate confirmed Tiffany Johnson, Biden’s judicial nominee for the Northern District of Georgia, making her the 40th Black woman he has appointed to lifetime federal judgeships — more than any president in a single term.

Overall, about 60% of Biden’s 235 appointees are people of color, according to figures the White House shared with NBC News. The Senate confirmed Cheeks and Serena Raquel Murillo last week.

Trump appointed 234 federal judges during his first term.

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“Even before taking office, President Biden signaled to the Senate that he wanted to make sure that people who had been historically excluded from our judiciary” are included, said Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program and an adviser at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

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Barack Obama appointed 26 Black women lifetime judges during his two terms, and Trump appointed two Black women judges to the federal bench in his first term.

Jimmy Carter appointed 37 Black lifetime judges in his one term. Both Obama and Bill Clinton each appointed 62 Black judges over the course of their two terms. Biden has beaten their record by one, according to the Leadership Conference.

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Biden has long made it his goal while in office to reshape the overwhelmingly white and male federal judiciary by appointing judges from various professional and demographic backgrounds. He’s managed to do that, confirming record numbers of former public defenders, civil rights lawyers or lawyers representing workers. More than half his appointees have been women, according to the White House, and his appointments include several LGBTQ judges and judges from several racial and ethnic minority groups.

Biden made history by appointing Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. Dozens of his appointments account for various “firsts.”

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