Biden Nominates 5 More Judges, 1st Muslim Appellate Court Judge

Facts

• US Pres. Joe Biden announced five more judicial nominees on Wednesday, adding to the more than 150 already confirmed by the Senate. If confirmed, they would include the first Muslim-American circuit court judge and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals' first openly LGBTQ+ judge.¹
• Adeel A. Mangi, a Muslim Harvard- and Oxford-trained lawyer, was nominated to sit on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He has written multiple amicus briefs, including one to block former Pres. Donald Trump's travel ban on Muslim-majority countries and another to block an attempt at diverting federal funds to build a border wall.²
• Biden nominated Nicole Berner, currently the general counsel for the Services Employees International Union, to sit on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. If confirmed, she would become that court's first openly LGBTQ+ judge. Biden's nominee for the federal district court for the Northern District of Indiana, Judge Cristal Brisco, would become that court's first-ever Black woman and woman of color.³
• Alongside Brisco, who currently sits on both the St. Joseph County Superior Court in South Bend, Ind., and the Indiana Commercial Court, Biden also nominated Judge Gretchen S. Lund to the same Northern District Court. Lund has been on the Elkhart County Superior Court in Goshen, Ind., since 2015.⁴
• Judge Amy Baggio, a former assistant federal public defender, is Biden's nominee for the District of Oregon.¹
• While the White House said there are more nominations to come, the time-consuming Senate confirmation process means he may not reach the more than 230 confirmed under Trump.¹

Sources: ¹ABC News, ²Washington Post, ³CBS and ⁴The White House.

Narratives

• Democratic narrative, as provided by San Diego Union. Joe Biden has fought harder for and achieved more successful confirmations of diverse judicial nominees than any other president. He knows the importance of a judiciary representing both the ethnic backgrounds of the American people, which is why he's chosen the first Muslim, LGBTQ+, and Black women for their respective courts. He's also selected public defenders and civil rights lawyers to expand the breadth of legal backgrounds of America's federal judges.
• Republican narrative, as provided by The Hill. Since promising to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court, Biden has inadvertently stained the confirmations of his entire historically diverse group of judicial nominees. Rather than Americans focusing on the Ivy League background of, say, Ketanji Brown Jackson, they look at her as a token Black woman due to Biden's pandering during his campaign. It's important to not only select the most competent candidate but also publicly highlight that candidate based on said competency rather than immutable characteristics.