WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Joe Biden this week vetoed a once-bipartisan effort to add 66 federal district judgeships, claiming that the House’s “hurried action” left critical queries unanswered about the positions.
A proposed law aimed to create new federal trial court judgeships over more than a decade, giving three presidential administrations and six Congresses the opportunity to appoint judges. This bipartisan plan was carefully crafted to avoid giving either political party an advantage in shaping the judiciary.
The Democratic-controlled Senate passed the bill unanimously in August. However, the Republican-led House delayed voting until after Donald Trump’s reelection in November, making the process appear politically motivated.
The White House announced that President Biden would veto the bill.
“The House of Representative’s hurried action fails to resolve key questions in the legislation, especially regarding how the new judgeships are allocated, and neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate explored fully how the work of senior status judges and magistrate judges affects the need for new judgeships,” the president said in a statement.
“The efficient and effective administration of justice requires that these questions about need and allocation be further studied and answered before we create permanent judgeships for life-tenured judges,” Biden said.
“I am vetoing this bill,” Biden said, effectively ending its chances in the current Congress. Overriding the veto would require a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate, but the House vote fell far short.
Judges and legal organizations had urged Congress to pass the bill, arguing that the lack of new judges was causing significant delays in resolving cases and limiting access to justice.
Senator Todd Young, a Republican from Indiana, criticized Biden’s veto, calling it a “misguided decision.” He accused Biden of prioritizing his family over regular Americans, referencing a recent pardon Biden granted to his son Hunter for federal charges.
“Biden’s legacy will be ‘pardons for me, no justice for thee,'” Young said.
