President Joe Biden could potentially double the number of Black women ever confirmed to federal appellate courts, a key stepping stone to the U.S.Supreme Court (article available here).
As of Wednesday, with the selection of Arianna J. Freeman for the Third Circuit, the president has nominated eight Black women to the 13 U.S. Courts of Appeals. Five have been confirmed, most recently on Thursday, when Judge Holly A. Thomas cleared Senate approval to join the Ninth Circuit.
If the remaining three are confirmed, Biden would have doubled the total number of Black women to ever serve on federal appeals courts from eight to sixteen.
The federal appellate courts represent the highest judicial level under the Supreme Court and are the primary selection ground for future Supreme Court justices. Biden’s nominations reflect his intention to diversify the federal bench. By increasing the number of Black women judges in the courts where most justices come from, it also expands the pool of likely candidates for Biden to make good on his campaign promise to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. Biden has already put more Black women to the U.S. Courts of Appeals than any other president.
Beyond racial and gender diversity, Biden has made another notable mark by nominating the most people with public defender backgrounds to appellate courts than any other president. Of all of Biden’s judicial nominations, Freeman and 22 others are former public defenders; 15 have been confirmed so far.
In addition to Freeman, Biden’s list of nominees announced this week includes Nusrat Jahan Choudhury, who would be the first Muslim American woman to serve as a federal judge and Ana Isabel de Alba, who would be the first Latina ever to serve on the Eastern District of California.