The federal judges Biden picks are overwhelmingly non-white and women

On the Supreme Court, circuit and district courts, 65 percent of Trump’s nominees are white men. Just 13 percent of Biden nominees confirmed by the Senate are white men, according to a Federal Judicial Center analysis of Post race and ethnicity data.

“I am especially proud that these justices reflect the diversity that is the strength of our country,” Biden said in a February statement after confirming the 175th justice.

The Senate confirmed three more Biden justices this week, so he now only needs to be confirmed 200 times. The president will need to take significant action in the Senate in the coming months to match Trump’s pace on the federal bench. Trump appointed a record 237 federal judges during his term, including three Supreme Court justices.

Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate worked effectively to fill excess vacancies left by the GOP at the end of Barack Obama’s presidency. The resulting conservative influence, especially on the Supreme Court, where it led to a 2022 overturn Roe v. Wade, could last for decades.

As of mid-May, Biden remains the only president in history to have had more women than men on the federal bench. More than 6 in 10 judges appointed by Biden are women.

The Senate confirmed the same number of nonwhite women to the federal bench in Biden’s first year in office as his predecessor did throughout his four-year term.

Obama is the only president to appoint more women to the bench: 138 justices over the eight years of his presidency. Biden is about a dozen shy of that total as his first term nears its end.

Because judges are appointed for life, age at appointment is a strategic factor for presidents seeking lasting influence on the justice system. For both Trump and Biden, about half of the justices proposed by either president were under 50 when confirmed. Trump had 16 judges under 40, and Biden had six.

Tobi Raji contributed to this report.