Democrats advance 5 more Biden judicial nominees
Five more of President Biden's judicial nominees advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday and will proceed to the Senate floor in the coming days.
Senate Democrats confirmed Biden's 220th federal court appointment on Wednesday and are hoping to add to that number before the Thanksgiving holiday. Republicans have fought several of these nominees on grounds that they are too left wing, but a number of Biden's appointments were confirmed after GOP senators missed votes.
President-elect Trump accused Democrats of attempting to "stack the Courts" with radical appointees and urged Republicans to "Show Up and Hold the Line."
"No more Judges confirmed before Inauguration Day!" Trump posted on Truth Social.
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Democrats are in a mad rush to confirm as many of Biden's nominees as possible before Trump returns to the White House and Republicans install their incoming Senate majority.
The nominees advanced Thursday include Anthony Brindisi, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York; Elizabeth Coombe, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York; Sarah Davenport, nominated to the District Court for the District of New Mexico; Tiffany Johnson, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia; and Keli Neary, nominated to the U.S. District court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
The committee also advanced Miranda Holloway-Baggett, a nominee to be United States Marshal for the Southern District of Alabama.
Senators reached a bipartisan agreement on judicial nominations late Wednesday that secured Trump's ability to appoint four crucial appellate court judges after he assumes office in January.
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Republicans agreed to halt procedural delay tactics and permit Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to hold votes on four district court judges in exchange for pulling four higher tier circuit court judicial nominees, a Senate GOP source told Fox News Digital.
Trump will be able to fill those higher court vacancies while Democrats confirm judges to the lower courts.
However, a Senate Democrat leadership aide familiar with the agreement said the deal that was reached allowed for the Senate to vote on cloture on nine district court judges this week, and vote to confirm them when they return after Thanksgiving. The aide rejected the GOP source's framing of the agreement that the trade was four district judges for four circuit court judges.
"The trade was four circuit nominees — all lacking the votes to get confirmed — for more than triple the number of additional judges moving forward," a spokesperson for Schumer said in a statement.
A Democrat source familiar also made the point to Fox News Digital that only two of the circuit court vacancies are certain, and the other two may ultimately decide against taking senior judge status.
The nomination of Amir Ali to the District of Columbia was confirmed Wednesday night. The Senate voted on cloture on four other nominations as well. The Senate will vote Thursday on cloture on two further nominations, Noel Wise of California to be District Judge for the Northern District of California and Gail A. Weilheimer to be District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and vote on confirmation of one District Court Judge, Sharad Desai to be District Judge for Arizona.
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The deal was primarily motivated by a Senate slowdown initiated by Republicans through procedural maneuvers on Monday night, which was spearheaded by Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., who was recently elected as the next Republican Senate leader. The delay tactic plan came in response to Schumer's efforts to stack additional judicial confirmation votes on the calendar ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
"If Sen. Schumer thought Senate Republicans would just roll over and allow him to quickly confirm multiple Biden-appointed judges to lifetime jobs in the final weeks of the Democrat majority, he thought wrong," Thune told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement at the time.
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By objecting to Democrats' unanimous consent requests in order to file cloture on the Biden nominees, Republicans were adding additional votes to the schedule, taking up a substantial amount of time and forcing senators to spend all night at the Capitol.
The source noted to Fox News Digital that the new deal did not mean Republicans were going to allow the Biden district judges to sail through without opposition. GOP senators are still expected to fight and vote against the Democrat-nominated judges as they have done throughout Biden's term.
Fox News Digital's Haley Chi-Sing and Julia Johnson contributed to this report.