President Biden’s veto of a law creating more than 60 federal judgeships is getting bipartisan pushback after lawmakers and the Judicial Conference of the United States called for more judges throughout the nation’s courts.
Sen. Todd Young, who introduced the bill that had bipartisan support, said the decision to veto it was “misguided. … [It was] just another example of why Americans are counting down the days until President Biden leaves the White House.”
“Issuing this veto is partisan politics at its worst. The JUDGES Act is a fair bill with strong bipartisan support that would have created 66 judgeships over three presidential terms to address our judicial backlog,” said the Indiana Republican.
Even Sen. Chris Coons, a strong Biden ally, spoke out against Monday’s veto.
“I am disappointed by this outcome, for my own state and for the federal judges throughout the country struggling under the burden of ever-higher caseloads. I’ve worked on this bill for years, and thanks to the tireless bipartisan effort with Senator Young, it made it to the president’s desk. It’s highly unfortunate that it will not become law,” the Delaware Democrat said.
The law would have created 66 federal district judgeships over the course of a decade. It would have allowed three presidential administrations the chance to fill the vacancies, not giving one party an advantage over the other.
The law passed the Democratic-controlled Senate unanimously in August, but the GOP-controlled House waited to take up the measure until recently after President-elect Donald Trump won.
Mr. Biden said that’s one reason he decided to veto the measure.
“The House of Representatives’ hurried action fails to resolve key questions in the legislation, especially regarding how the new judgeships are allocated, and neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate explored fully how the work of senior status judges and magistrate judges affects the need for new judgeships,” Mr. Biden said.
“The efficient and effective administration of justice requires that these questions about need and allocation be further studied and answered before we create permanent judgeships for life-tenured judges,” the president’s statement read.
It has been more than two decades since Congress created any federal judgeships.
The Judicial Conference of the United States in 2023 called for new judges in the federal district and circuit courts over increased workload in certain jurisdictions.
• The Associated Press wire service contributed to this report.
