Judiciary Pushing Back Against Biden’s Veto

For years, the Senate has been working on legislation to add roughly five dozen judges to the bench over the course of 10 years.

The bill, had it passed, would have added 11 judges every two years starting in 2025 until 66 judges were added.

The bill passed in a bipartisan fashion in the Senate, then in the House, but Biden just vetoed it, and now even the judiciary is calling him out for it.

Not on My Watch

Ironically, one of the backers of this legislation was Biden’s campaign chair, Senator Chris Coons (D-DE).

The bill flew through the Senate, and it had bipartisan support in the House when Speaker Johnson (R-LA) put the bill on the floor after the election.

Coons has already expressed his displeasure with Biden, especially in how Biden worded his veto.

Biden accused Congress of not doing its due diligence, which was far from the case. To that point, Biden stated, “S. 4199 seeks to hastily add judgeships with just a few weeks left in the 118th Congress.

“The House of Representative’s 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.

“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.”

U.S. District Judge Robert Conrad, the director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, was not happy with Biden’s decision.

He stated, "The president's veto will contribute to the pattern of growing caseloads and increasing backlogs that hurt litigants and weakens public confidence in our courts.”

Conrad continued, "Failure to enact this legislation will likely push back the opportunity to pass a judgeship bill for many years.”

Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane, the top judge in the Southern District of Texas, added, "On the same day that sentences of scores of capital murders were commuted, the president denies or delays access to justice for ordinary people seeking their day in court through his veto.”

There is one reason and one reason only that Biden decided to veto this bill.

Donald Trump would have been locked into 22 of those appointments, and if the GOP wins again in 2028, they would be able to appoint every single one of those judges.

You better believe that if Harris won this election, Biden would have gladly signed that bill into law.

This was about power and influence, nothing more.