Biden Sets Record of Black Judicial Appointments

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

President Joe Biden has appointed a historic number of non-whites to federal judgeships. Among the appointments are 40 Black women to lifetime judgeships, the most of any president in U.S. history.

In Biden’s selection of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, Jackson became the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.

Biden’s most recent appointment is Tiffany Rene Johnson, who was confirmed to serve as a judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

In a Dec. 9 statement from U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, both said they are pleased that Biden accepted their July 9 recommendation for Johnson’s judgeship.

“I am pleased that the Senate has confirmed Tiffany Rene Johnson for this key Federal judgeship. I am confident that Ms. Johnson will perform her duties with impartiality and professionalism,” Sen. Ossoff said.

“Tiffany Johnson’s temperament, discernment, and legal wisdom are exemplary. I’m elated to have voted to confirm her to serve as the next judge in the Northern District of Georgia,” Warnock said.

The new federal judge, Johnson, has served as an assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia since 2017.

She served in the office’s civil division until 2020, when she transferred to its criminal division.

According to Pew Research Center, nearly two-thirds of the judges Biden had appointed as of Nov. 5 (96 of 145, or just over 66 percent) are Black, Hispanic, Asian American or members of another racial or ethnic minority group.

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However “there are still courts in the Southern states that still don’t look like … the people they serve because Republican senators have blocked all kinds of diverse nominees, or any nominee from the Democratic president,” said Carolyn Leary Bobb, vice president of communications for Alliance for Justice, a progressive group that advocates for judicial diversity.

Biden said of his historic number of federal judgeships in a May 2024 statement on the White House’s website, “These judges are exceptionally well-qualified. They come from every walk of life, and collectively, they form the most diverse group of judicial appointees ever put forward by a President – 64 percent are women and 62 percent are people of color. Despite differences in background and experience, they are all committed to principles that are at the core of our democracy: independence, freedom, and liberty.”

According to data tracked by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, 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.

Fifty-eight of the 200 federal judges confirmed during the Biden administration are Black.  Thirty six are Hispanic. Thirty-five judges are Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders.

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