By the Numbers: Five Big Moments on Judicial Nominations in 2023

A series of health-related absences among Senate Democrats, most notably Dianne Feinstein prior to her death, slowed judicial confirmations before they picked up in the final months of 2023.

Biden surpassed 150 confirmations in November, with two-thirds being women. Another 16 were confirmed before the Senate left for the holidays.

Most confirmations tracked along party lines in the Senate narrowly controlled by Democrats, and a pair of nominees withdrew from consideration, including a First Circuit pick.

Here’s a look at five major moments in judicial confirmations this year:

Feinstein Dies

Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the Senate’s longest serving female lawmaker and a Judiciary Committee mainstay for three decades, died in September at 90.

Absences by Feinstein and other Democrats slowed Judiciary Committee action and floor votes on nominees in the spring and summer.

A number of Biden judicial selections drew no Republican support either in the Judiciary Committee—where Democrats hold a one-seat edge—or on confirmation, making attendance for Democrats more critical than usual.

Democrats failed in their efforts to temporarily replace Feinstein on the committee during her illness. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) appointed Laphonza Butler to take Feinstein’s seat after she died, and now is the only Black woman in the Senate. She assumed Feinstein’s place on the Judiciary Committee as well.

Delaney Withdraws

While Biden hit a few judiciary milestones in 2023, he also sustained a couple of setbacks.

Michael Delaney’s contentious bid for a New Hampshire seat on the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ended with the private attorney’s request to withdraw from consideration in May.

Delaney, a former attorney general for the state, had come under bipartisan pressure for his past representation of an elite private school in sexual assault litigation involving a student.

Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said at the time of Delaney’s request to withdraw that he didn’t have the needed votes to proceed.

Biden’s subsequent pick, federal prosecutor Seth Aframe, is awaiting a vote by the full chamber.

Shortly after Delaney’s withdrawal, Biden’s trial court selection for the District of Kansas, federal prosecutor Jabari Wamble, also withdrew after his nomination stalled.

Biden previously sought to put Wamble on the Tenth Circuit, but he didn’t receive a confirmation hearing or a rating from the American Bar Association, which is customary for judicial nominees, and wasn’t renominated in 2023.

100 Women

The Senate reached 150 total confirmed judicial nominees under Biden in early November, 100 of them women. Another eight were confirmed before the Senate completed work.

The milestone underscored Biden’s diversity goals for the judiciary, which has traditionally been White and male.

“These nominees are all historic taken together, and many are historic in their own right,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in floor remarks at the time.

The year also saw a number of Biden nominees end lengthy waits for confirmation, such as Kenly Kiya Kato for the Central District of California. She waited roughly two years for a floor vote.

Abudu Confirmed

Nancy Abudu, a former civil rights lawyer, was confirmed in May as the first Black woman to serve on the Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit after waiting over a year for a full Senate vote.

Judiciary Republicans staunchly opposed Abudu, the former deputy legal director and interim director for strategic litigation at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Conservatives had derided the organization for its statements about conservative-aligned organizations and some GOP lawmakers.

Initially nominated by Biden in December 2021, she was the first of Biden’s nominees opposed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.)—a rare defection at the time. Manchin opposed other judicial nominees deemed too liberal by Republicans, presumably because he faced a tough reelection bid in his overwhelmingly conservative state. He ultimately dropped his bid for another term.

Mangi Nominated

The Biden administration nominated Adeel Mangi, who would be the first Muslim judge to serve on a federal appeals court if confirmed. Mangi, a veteran litigator and trial attorney, was selected for a New Jersey seat on the Third Circuit.

He’s Biden’s fourth Muslim judicial nominee. Judge Zahid Quraishi was confirmed to the District of New Jersey in 2021 and Nusrat Choudhury joined the Eastern District of New York earlier this year. Mustafa Kasubhai’s nomination to the District of Oregon is pending in the Senate.

Mangi’s nomination comes as prominent Muslim Americans have criticized the president for supporting Israel’s military campaign in Gaza that followed the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

Mangi also faced aggressive questioning from Senate Judiciary conservatives during his confirmation hearing about his personal views on pro-Palestinian sentiments, the Israel-Hamas war, and controversial figures invited to speak about 9/11 by the Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers Law School. The questions were condemned by Senate Democrats, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and the National Council of Jewish Women.

— With assistance from Suzanne Monyak.