WASHINGTON – Demand Justice, a progressive organization focused on the judiciary, is set to bombard Capitol Hill with a message for the closing weeks of the 118th Congress: Do “whatever it takes” to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominees as a second Donald Trump presidency looms.
The Republican president-elect's victory and the GOP takeover of the Senate leaves just seven weeks of Democratic control of the chamber.
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Democrats have confirmed 213 of Biden’s judicial nominees during his presidency. Another few dozen are still pending. To add to those confirmations, Senate Democrats would need to stay in Washington far longer than they had planned and also navigate a razor-thin margin that hamstrung them at times on other Biden priorities.
Trump focused heavily on filling court vacancies in his first term, getting 234 judges confirmed, including three to the Supreme Court. Democrats are seeking to deny him more opportunities to name conservative judges as the party determines its path forward after a sweeping defeat that will leave it out of power come January.
“Senate Democrats cannot give up and go home just because they lost the chamber,” said Skye Perryman, a senior adviser to Demand Justice, whose push will include widespread lobbying, Capitol Hill events and targeted ads. “It is even more critical now that good, qualified, fair-minded judges are confirmed so they can serve as a backstop and uphold the rights of ordinary people and protect our Constitution.”
According to the United States Courts website, 17 pending judicial nominees have advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, eight are waiting for votes from the committee and six are waiting for committee hearings. The White House announced new judicial nominees in October and November.
The Senate returned this week from their break around the election. The Senate calendar has the legislative body being out of town around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. But the calendar is subject to change, and it is common for senators to leave Washington for extended weekend breaks.
The push will confront an already full schedule in the Senate, too. In addition to confirmations, the legislative body will be tasked with providing more disaster aid after a string of deadly storms, passing the annual defense policy bill, and keeping the government funded and open.
Some Democratic-caucusing senators like West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, both independents, are leaving the chamber at the end of this session. And if Republicans are unified to oppose Biden's picks, Manchin has said he will not support judicial appointments that are not bipartisan, shrinking the Democratic margin.
One nominee, April Perry, was confirmed on Monday evening for the northern district of Illinois.
Asked about the effort to pressure Senate Democrats to do all they can to confirm these nominees, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “We are going to get as many done as we can.”
Trump on Sunday urged Republicans to oppose Schumer’s efforts. “No Judges should be approved during this period of time because the Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership,” he wrote.
“Delaying the confirmation of strongly qualified, experienced judges takes a real-life toll on constituents and leads to backlogs of criminal cases — meaning there is every urgent reason for Republicans and Democrats to continue working together in good faith to staff the federal bench,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in response to Trump. “There is no excuse for choosing partisanship over enforcing the rule of law.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he hoped Republicans would not seek to delay confirmation votes for judges, noting that Democrats agreed to a package of 12 judicial confirmations at the end of the first Trump presidency.
“I hope they follow the precedent,” Durbin said.
He added that he hopes to get about two dozen judicial nominees confirmed during the lame-duck session.
“That’s just about all we can do,” he added.
Perryman from Demand Justice echoed that sentiment. “There is no excuse not to put these qualified individuals on the floor for a vote. Americans all across the country are working overtime to make ends meet, and the Senate should work overtime too: Americans deserve better from their elected officials than excuses or delays," Perryman added.
According to operatives working with Demand Justice, the group’s plan includes a widespread lobbying effort aimed at key senators, press events urging action and a new website that gives constituents a chance to see where the effort stands.
“With only weeks left before the new Congress, it’s more urgent than ever that Democratic senators do whatever it takes — staying late, working weekends — during the lame duck session,” said Maggie Jo Buchanan, a top operative at the progressive organization.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, in a series of post-election posts reflecting on Trump’s win, urged Schumer to “use every minute of the end-of-year legislative session to confirm federal judges and key regulators — none of whom can be removed by the next President.”
And groups like The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights have echoed this focus.
“As the Senate returns to Washington and with limited time remaining, it is critically important that our senators immediately vote on all of President Biden’s judicial nominees,” said Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program and an advisor at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
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Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.