President Biden marks historic 40th Black female judge confirmed to federal bench

By Gerren Keith Gaynor – TheGrio | December 10, 2024

President Joe Biden marked yet another historic moment for his administration in his final days in office on Monday when the U.S. Senate confirmed his 40th Black female judge to the federal bench.

As part of an effort to seat as many federal judges before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House on Jan. 20, the Senate confirmed Tiffany Rene Johnson to serve on the Northern District of Georgia. Judge Johnson is only the third Black woman to serve a lifetime appointment on the court. Johnson’s confirmation also ties the record for the most Black lifetime judges (62) confirmed during a presidency.

According to data tracked by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, President Biden’s appointment of 62 Black lifetime judges is the highest in a single term. During his one term in office, President Jimmy Carter appointed 37 Black lifetime judges, as did President Bill Clinton during his first term. Over the course of their two terms in office, President Barack Obama and Clinton each appointed 62 Black judges.

During his first term, President Trump appointed only two Black women out of 234 judges to the federal bench, which is less than 1% of his appointments. Trump nominated no Black judges to federal circuit courts.

Since taking office, President Biden has vowed to reshape the federal judiciary to reflect America’s diversity. His most historic and notable appointment was Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was confirmed as the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court in April 2022.

Jackson, Ketanji Brown — Courtesy Supreme Court Ketanji Brown Jackson

Biden has appointed several “first” Black judges across the nation’s district courts and courts of appeals, including Tiffany Cunningham, the first Black judge to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; Dana Douglas, the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; and Jerry Edwards, Jr., the first Black judge to serve on U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

In addition to this record appointment, the Leadership Conference also noted that among President Biden’s Black female judicial selections, more than half of them bring what advocates celebrate as important professional experiences to the federal bench as former civil rights lawyers and public defenders.

The steady appointments from President Biden (and confirmations by the Senate) are seen as necessary in his final 41 days in the Oval Office, not only to fulfill his goal of transforming the federal judiciary but also to preserve his legislative legacy. Many of his policies — and those enacted by President Trump in his second term — could be challenged in the courts in the coming months and years. The ideological bent of federal judges will undoubtedly have major implications.