Lot’s of them…..
The Law is NOT supposed to be political….
But lets face it….
They ARE to some extent….
As of Dec. 23, 94 of Biden’s nominees have been confirmed to district and appellate courts — compared to 83 at this point in Trump’s presidency. And there are still plenty of positions left to fill. Right now, there are 79 open seats on the federal bench2 and 30 upcoming vacancies — this is when a judge announces they will retire at a future date. If Biden and Senate Democrats manage to fill all of those seats, there will be 203 Biden judicial nominee confirmations, compared to the 228 appointments Trump and Senate Republicans got through.
More could be coming, too. While fewer vacancies are likely to open up in the next two years, there are 85 Democratic-appointed judges who will be eligible to retire with full benefits in 2023 and 2024, according to data compiled by Brookings Institution fellow Russell Wheeler.3 Still, it’s very possible for Biden to match or even out-appoint Trump, since that estimate does not account for additional judges who may step down unexpectedly due to health or other factors.
Right now, our analysis of data from the Federal Judicial Center shows that 11 percent of federal judges are Biden appointees and 26 percent are Trump appointees. (The rest were appointed by past presidents.) If Biden successfully fills all of the current vacancies, however, he will have appointed 20 percent of all federal judges. That shift is significant for demographic and political reasons. Trump’s appointees were overwhelmingly white and conservative, with traditional backgrounds for federal judges like private law practice and prosecution, while Biden is mostly nominating women and people of color who often come from nontraditional professional paths like public defense. If Biden takes advantage of the vacancies that are still open, his appointees could end up counterbalancing Trump’s — at least in some places. And that, in turn, could make the courts even more politically polarized….