As a second Trump administration approaches, we’re running out of time to confirm as many federal judges as possible to provide a check on his presidential power and curb his stated policy priorities.
There are 40 federal judicial vacancies and 16 nominations before the Senate right now—as our civil rights hang in the balance, take action now!
The new Trump presidency hasn’t even started yet, but the chaos sure has. With astonishingly unqualified nominees piling up for key Cabinet positions and devouring media attention, one can be forgiven for forgetting that Joe Biden is still the president. But he is — and he is still in charge of nominating judges to fill federal court vacancies, while the current Senate is still in charge of confirming them.
You might think confirming judges sounds like a mundane administrative task, but you would be incorrect. That’s because federal judges — from the district courts all the way up to the Supreme Court—play a critically important role in interpreting our laws and protecting our civil rights. When presidents choose qualified individuals with a strong commitment to the rule of law and affirming equal justice under it, we generally get court decisions that are in line with that commitment and advance justice for all of us. When presidents choose partisan hacks who are dismissive of, say, women’s bodily autonomy or the very purpose and function of government itself, we get decisions that strip us of our autonomy and undermine our government’s ability to address important problems.
Federal judges are appointed for life — so their impact extends well beyond any individual presidency. The Biden-Harris administration has taken many important regulatory actions to protect workers and boost pay for people across the country. But roughly one-third of the federal judges on the bench during President Biden’s term were appointed by President-elect Trump during his first term, and they have consistently sided with corporate employers, not workers. Recent decisions from Trump’s judges have:
Trump’s judges have taken money right out of the pockets of workers. And even when the current administration appeals these decisions, those appeals will be heard by still more Trump-appointed judges—potentially even the three Trump-appointed judges currently on the Supreme Court. SCOTUS’s Trump triumvirate recently added to their string of appalling, precedent-defying decisions with Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which upended decades of case law by allowing un-elected judges to ignore expert federal agencies when interpreting ambiguous provisions of laws.
Judges also have the power to make it harder — or easier — for people to enforce their rights at work and hold their employers accountable for discrimination. Trump-appointed judges have consistently chosen to make it harder. For example:
As president, Donald Trump will undoubtedly appoint more judges who want to unravel workplace protections, shifting even more power from workers to employers and empowering workplace bullies to intimidate and harass their coworkers with impunity. The Senate must not leave any current vacancies for Trump to fill—and must instead confirm judges who will protect our rights and benefits at work.
Take action: Tell the Senate to confirm judges committed to expanding civil rights.
