Ben Jealous

Ben Jealous

Praise Biden for naming blacks to the bench

Spread the love

By Ben Jealous

One of the most important reasons to vote Donald Trump out of the White House was to stop him from packing our federal courts with even more anti-voting-rights, anti-equality, pro-corporate judges. Stopping the flood of bad Trump judges was a huge accomplishment for every organizer and voter who helped elect Joe Biden as president.

That’s only part of the good news. President Biden is making history with the most diverse set of judicial nominees ever.

President Trump’s judicial nominees were overwhelmingly white men, often young and unqualified. They were almost always picked for their commitment to a right-wing judicial ideology that makes it harder for millions of Americans to count on the courts for justice. Thanks to Trump and his Republican enablers in the Senate, we will be dealing with hundreds of those judges for years to come.

GSWNH BenJealous 010722

Ben Jealous

Elections matter. Right now, instead of more judges hand-picked by right-wing legal activists and their corporate allies, President Biden is making good on his promise to bring greater diversity to our federal courts. Biden is naming far more brilliant black judges and women judges than any other president – including Barack Obama.

Let’s look at some numbers. Because they are impressive.

More than 30 percent of Biden’s judicial nominees so far have been black. Fewer than 5 percent of Trump’s judicial picks were black.

More than a quarter of Biden’s judicial nominees have been black women. Under Trump, it was less than one percent. In fact, almost half of President Biden’s judicial nominees are women of color.

Biden has been in office for less than a year, and he has already doubled the number of black women judges on the circuit courts – the highest level of federal courts below the Supreme Court. Trump named zero black judges to the circuit courts; nearly 40 percent of Biden’s circuit court nominees have been black.

There’s also a lot more diversity in Biden nominees’ life experiences and professional backgrounds. They aren’t all corporate lawyers and law professors. Almost one-third of them have had experience as public defenders. Some of them have worked at respected civil rights organizations. Some have devoted their legal careers to protecting and representing workers. One started her career at the Legal Aid Society.

This is how we get federal courts that represent all of us, not just the most privileged and powerful.

That brings us back to elections. President Biden has been able to get his nominees confirmed—more lifetime judges at this point in his term in office since Gerald Ford—because voters in Georgia elected Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.

If Republicans still held a Senate majority, Mitch McConnell would be slow-walking and stopping Biden’s judicial nominees. When Trump was in power, McConnell laughed and bragged about how he kept so many of President Obama’s nominees from getting confirmed so that Trump would have lots of vacancies to fill.

McConnell would love to regain the power to block Biden’s judicial nominees. He would love to return to his practice of refusing to schedule hearings and votes on even the most qualified judges. He would love to abuse his power to keep hundreds of judicial seats vacant in the hopes that Trump or some other Republican will take back the White House in 2024—and bring back the flood of white, right-wing men determined to impose their ideology on the federal courts and on all of us.

We can’t let that happen.

Let’s praise the good work being done by the Biden White House and Senate Democrats. Let’s thank them for bringing balance and diversity and a commitment to equal justice for all to the federal courts. Let’s work as hard as we can to keep the Senate and White House in Democratic hands in 2022 and 2024.

Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way. In 2008, he was chosen as the youngest-ever president and CEO of the NAACP. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and he has taught at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania.

Local News

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.

Neighbors

Veronica Shaw

Sandburg welcomes new associate principal of instruction

Spread the love

Spread the loveConsolidated High School District 230 Board of Education is welcoming Dr. Veronica Shaw to Carl Sandburg High School as its new Associate Principal of Instruction. She begins July 1 and replaces Anita Huffman who was recently appointed as District 230’s Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services. With ample education leadership experience, Shaw is currently…

Sheri Cannataro, of Cannataro Farms, demonstrates the gear she wears to extract honey from a bee hive for visitors who stopped by to see her products at the Hills Chamber of Commerce Business and Community Expo Saturday at Conrady Junior High School in Hickory Hills. (Photos by Joe Boyle)

Residents warm up to Hills Chamber Business Expo

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Joe Boyle Spring has arrived but winter continues to leave its calling card. However, that did not prevent the Hills Chamber of Commerce from holding its 10th annual Business and Community Expo Saturday at Conrady Junior High School in Hickory Hills. While the temperatures were frigid and windy outside, the spirit inside…

Palos Park Mayor Nicole Milovich-Walters speaks about zoning codes at the March 25 council meeting. (Photo by Jeff Vorva)

Palos Park to tweak outdated village zoning codes

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Jeff Vorva The village of Palos Park has no grand plan to change the village landscape. But officials want to modernize some of its zoning codes. “The village has not comprehensively updated its development regulations since 1960,” Mayor Nicole Milovich-Walters said at the March 25 village council meeting. “Due to this, there…

Ridgeland sd122 logo

SD122 psychologist resigns over Islamophobic posts

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Nuha Abdessalam A psychologist for Ridgeland School District 122 has resigned after hundreds of parents demanded she be fired for social media posts that were pro-Israeli and anti-Palestinian. District Supt. Joseph Matise announced at a schoolboard meeting last week that Dr. Laurie Hoke had resigned. “Dr. Hoke will no longer be working…

CRR_NH

Clear-Ridge Reporter and NewsHound March 27, 2024

Spread the love

Spread the love

Mary Stanek

Will the month of March leave like a lion?

Spread the love

Spread the love. By Mary Stanek Your correspondent in Archer Heights and West Elsdon 3808 W. 57th Place •  (773) 517-7796 . The days are getting longer and slightly warmer. But my prediction of a few weeks ago–March is certainly not leaving like a lamb–may prove to be correct. A sure sign of spring in…

Peggy Zabicki

Robin sighting a sign of new beginnings

Spread the love

Spread the love. By Peggy Zabicki Your correspondent in West Lawn 3633 W. 60th Place •  (773) 504-9327 . I saw a robin the other day. This was the first sighting of the season for me. I remember my mom saying that the first robin of spring is a promise of new beginnings. May it be so. Is…

SRP-IMAGE-Logo

Thome sweet Thome: Nazareth baseball defeats Hall of Famer Jim Thome’s alma mater

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Jeff Vorva Correspondent The Nazareth baseball team took a road trip to the middle of Illinois and improved its record to 7-0 on March 23 by beating Limestone, 6-0. Limestone is the alma mater of former White Sox player and Baseball Hall of Fame member Jim Thome, who is an assistant coach…

SRP-IMAGE-Logo

Chicago Catholic League greats headed to Hall of Fame

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Jeff Vorva Correspondent A handful of area stars will be inducted into the Chicago Catholic League Coaches Association Hall of Fame. The list features Kevin Bracken (St. Laurence, wrestling), Kevin Carberry (St. Rita, football), Matt Macievic (De La Salle, cross county and track), Mike McGrew (Mount Carmel, football), Dan Nicholson (Brother Rice,…

SRP-IMAGE-Logo

Fire II tops Chicago City, advances to to second round of Hunt Open Cup

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Jeff Vorva Correspondent The Chicago Fire II picked up a late invitation to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and beat Chicago City, 6-0, on March 20 in front of an announced crowd of 810 at SeatGeek Stadium. Defender Giovanni Granda and midfielder Vitaliy Hlyut each made their professional debut and scored…