The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bipartisan bill that would create 66 new federal district court judgeships to address the growing backlog in the court system. The legislation, backed by the federal judiciary, aims to alleviate bottlenecks in the judicial process but has sparked partisan controversy, especially following President-elect Donald Trump’s recent election victory.
The bill passed the House by a 236-173 vote, with 29 Democrats voting in favor and two Republicans voting against. It had previously passed the Senate in August by unanimous consent and was seen as a noncontroversial measure at the time. However, the situation changed after Trump’s victory in the 2024 election.
House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts sent a note to colleagues urging them to oppose the bill. She expressed concerns that creating new judgeships could allow a future Trump administration to influence the judiciary. “While this bill attempts to provide a solution to our backlogged court system, House Democrats should remain clear-eyed on what authorizing a significant number of new, empty judgeships means under a future Trump Administration,” Clark wrote.
Despite these concerns, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, defended the bill. He stated, “At that time, Democrats supported the bill — they thought Kamala Harris would win the presidency. Now, however, the Biden-Harris Administration has chosen to issue a veto threat and Democrats have whipped against this bill, standing in the way of progress, simply because of partisan politics.”
The bill would add 66 new judgeships as requested by the federal judiciary to help reduce case backlogs. While Democrats have raised concerns about Trump potentially filling these positions, the appointments would be staggered over a 10-year period, with Trump only able to appoint 25 of the 66 new judgeships.
The legislation, which would be the first significant expansion of judgeships since 1990, is seen as a necessary step to improve judicial efficiency. Judge Robert Conrad, the director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, emphasized the importance of the bill in improving access to justice. He noted, “This measure would improve access to justice in the federal courts and improve judicial administration by adding critically needed new judgeships, while specifying that the appointments are to be spread out over a 10-year period.”
Despite the bipartisan support, President Biden has threatened to veto the bill, with the White House arguing that the expansion of judgeships is “unnecessary to the efficient and effective administration of justice.”
