U.S. Circuit Court Nominees Confirmed During the First Year of the Biden Presidency: Overview and Comparative Analysis

U.S. Circuit Court Nominees Confirmed During the First Year of the Biden Presidency: Overview and Comparative Analysis

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INSIGHTi

U.S. Circuit Court Nominees Confirmed
During the First Year of the Biden Presidency:
Overview and Comparative Analysis
January 5, 2022
This Insight provides information related to the number of U.S. circuit court nominees confirmed during
the first calendar year of the Biden presidency (2021), as well as information about the number of such
nominees confirmed during the first years of presidencies from 1953 to 2017. Additionally, this Insight
provides demographic information about President Biden’s confirmed nominees, as well as the nominees
confirmed during the first years of the presidencies of his three immediate predecessors—Presidents
Trump, Obama, and George W. Bush. Another Insight, available here, provides similar information about
U.S. district court nominees.
U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals
The U.S. courts of appeals, or circuit courts, hear challenges to U.S. district court decisions and also
review the decisions of many administrative agencies. The United States is divided into 12 geographic
circuits, each with a U.S. court of appeals. One additional appellate court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Federal Circuit, has specialized subject matter jurisdiction. The U.S. courts of appeals provide final
decisions each year in thousands of cases.
Number of Confirmed Nominees
President Biden had 11 U.S. circuit court nominees confirmed during his first calendar year in office. As
shown by Figure 1, this is the second-highest number of circuit court nominees confirmed during the first
year of a presidency since 1953 (there were also 11 circuit court nominees confirmed during the first
years of the Kennedy and Nixon presidencies). Of the 11 presidencies included in Figure 1, the greatest
number of circuit court nominees confirmed during the first year of a presidency is 12 (in 2017 during the
first year of the Trump presidency).
The 11 circuit court nominees confirmed during the first year of the Biden presidency is above the median
number of such nominees confirmed during the first year of the 11 presidencies included in the figure
(with a median of 8 confirmed nominees). The relatively greater number of circuit court nominees
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confirmed in 2021, as well as during the first year of the Trump presidency, is likely attributable, at least
in part, to the reinterpretation of Senate Rule XXII during the 113th Congress to allow cloture to be
invoked on most nominations by a simple majority of Senators voting—a quorum being present.
Additionally, the change surrounding the Senate Judiciary Committee’s blue slip policy for circuit court
nominees may not have been a factor in 2017 or 2021 but may be a factor during other years of a
presidency.
Figure 1. Number of U.S. Circuit Court Nominees Confirmed During the First Year of a
Presidency
(1953-2021)

Source: Congressional Research Service.
When combined with the number of U.S. district court nominees confirmed during the first year of the
Biden presidency (29 nominees), the number of circuit and district court nominees confirmed in 2021 is
the greatest total number of such nominees confirmed during the first year of any presidency since 1981
(when a total of 40 nominees were also confirmed during the first year of the Reagan presidency).
Demographic Characteristics of Confirmed Nominees
Gender
Of the 11 U.S. circuit court nominees confirmed during the first year of the Biden presidency, 9 (82%)
were women. This represents the first instance during the first year of any presidency that a majority of
confirmed circuit court nominees were women.
For comparative purposes, Figure 2 provides data for each of the first years of the presidencies of
President Biden’s three immediate predecessors—Presidents Trump (2017), Obama (2009), and George
W. Bush (2001). Specifically, of the 12 circuit court nominees confirmed during the first year of the
Trump presidency, 3 (25%) were women; of the 3 circuit court nominees confirmed during the first year
of the Obama presidency, none were women; and of the 6 circuit court nominees confirmed during the
first year of the Bush presidency, 2 (33%) were women.
The percentage of circuit court nominees confirmed during the first year of a presidency who were
women is not always reflective of the overall percentage of such nominees who were confirmed during an
entire presidency. For example, of the 55 circuit court nominees confirmed during the entire Obama
presidency, 24 (44%) were women.

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Overall, of the 176 active U.S. circuit court judges serving as of January 1, 2022, 65 (37%) were women
and 111 (63%) were men.
Figure 2. Demographic Background of U.S. Circuit Court Nominees Confirmed During the
First Year of a Presidency
(2001-2021)

Source: Congressional Research Service.
Race
Of the 11 U.S. circuit court nominees confirmed during the first year of the Biden presidency, 8 (73%)
were nonwhite (including 4 African-American nominees, 2 Hispanic nominees, and 2 Asian-American
nominees). This represents the first instance during the first year of any presidency that a majority of
confirmed circuit court nominees were nonwhite.
For comparative purposes, Figure 2 provides data for each of the first years of the presidencies of
President Biden’s three immediate predecessors—Presidents Trump (2017), Obama (2009), and George
W. Bush (2001). Specifically, of the 12 circuit court nominees confirmed during the first year of the
Trump presidency, 2 (17%) were nonwhite; of the 3 circuit court nominees confirmed during the first year
of the Obama presidency, 1 (33%) was nonwhite; and of the 6 circuit court nominees confirmed during
the first year of the Bush presidency, 2 (33%) were nonwhite.
The percentage of circuit court nominees confirmed during the first year of a presidency who were
nonwhite is not always reflective of the overall percentage of such nominees who were confirmed during
an entire presidency. For example, of the 62 circuit court nominees confirmed during the entire George W.
Bush presidency, 9 (15%) were nonwhite.
Overall, of the 176 active U.S. circuit court judges serving as of January 1, 2022, 46 (26%) were
nonwhite and 130 (74%) were white.

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Author Information

Barry J. McMillion

Analyst in American National Government

Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff
to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of
Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of
information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role.
CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United
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as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the
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