Joe Biden has stamped his legacy on the federal bench after Senate Democrats raced to confirm more than 200 nominees to lifetime appointments in courts across the US, outpacing Donald Trump’s tally during his first presidency.
The number of Biden’s judicial nominees reached 235 as Congress ended its latest session last week, topping the 234 federal judges confirmed by Trump during his first term. It was the most judges appointed by a president during a single four-year term since the 1980s, Biden said in a statement.
As Biden’s presidency drew to a close, Democrats in the Senate — which is tasked with confirming federal judges — had pushed to secure as many confirmations as they could before control of Congress and the White House is ceded to Republicans next month.