President Joe Biden on Monday vetoed a once-bipartisan effort to add 66 federal district judges and the “rushed action” by the House left unanswered important questions about lifetime positions.
The law spread the establishment of new trial court judges by more than a decade to allow three presidential administrations and six congresses a chance to appoint new judges.
The bipartisan effort was carefully designed so that lawmakers could not deliberately give an advantage to either political party in shaping the federal judiciary.
The Democratic-controlled Senate passed the measure unanimously in August. But the Republican-led House brought it to the floor only after Republican Donald Trump was re-elected to a second term in November, adding a veneer of political gamesmanship to the process.
The White House said at the time that Biden would veto the bill.
“The House of Representatives’ hasty action failed to resolve key questions in the law, particularly regarding how new judges are assigned, and neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate fully explored how the work of senior judges and magistrate judges would be affected. New judges, ” the president said in a statement.
“The efficient and effective administration of justice requires further study and answers to these questions regarding need and allocation before creating permanent judges for lifetime judges,” Biden said.
He said the bill would also create new judges in states where senators have not filled existing judicial vacancies and that those efforts “suggest that concerns about judicial economy and caseload are not the real driving force behind the passage of this bill.”
“Therefore, I am vetoing this bill,” Biden said, essentially dooming the legislation for the current Congress. Overriding Biden’s veto requires a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate, and the House vote fell short of that margin.
Organizations representing judges and lawyers urged Congress to vote in favor of the bill. They argued that the lack of new federal judges contributed to deep delays in the resolution of cases and serious access to justice concerns.
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., reacted sharply, calling the veto a “misleading decision” and “another example of why Americans are counting down the days until President Biden leaves the White House.” He hinted at the full pardon that Biden recently gave his son Hunter on federal gun and tax charges.
“The president is more excited about using his office to provide relief to his family members who received due process than he is to provide relief to millions of regular Americans who have been waiting years for their due process,” Young said. “Biden’s legacy will be ‘forgiveness for me, no justice for you.’
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