President Joe Biden comes off the victory of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the Supreme Court with a backlog of lower court vacancies that don’t have a pending nominee, including 19 circuit court seats.
Biden moved quickly to fill judicial vacancies in his first year in office but has put forward only one nomination since Justice Stephen Breyer announced plans to retire in late January. The White House must pick up the pace if it wants to fill judgeships—including two seats on the powerful D.C. federal appeals court—prior to midterm elections that could end Democrats’ narrow Senate majority.
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