White House says Biden would veto bill adding judicial seats

The White House said Tuesday that President Biden would veto a bipartisan bill that would create dozens of new judicial seats in the coming years, raising questions about the motivations behind the bill and its timing.

In a statement of administration policy, the White House threatened a veto against the JUDGES Act, which passed the Senate in August by unanimous consent. The bill would add 66 federal court seats over the next decade, with the intention of lightening caseloads, particularly in high volume places like California and Texas.

“The bill would create new judgeships in states where Senators have sought to hold open existing judicial vacancies,” the White House said in a statement. “Those efforts to hold open vacancies suggest that concerns about judicial economy and caseload are not the true motivating force behind passage of this bill now.”

The White House also raised concerns about the timing of the bill’s potential passage, noting that the Senate passed the legislation in August, but the GOP-led House did not take it up until after the election, which was won by President-elect Trump.

“Hastily adding judges with just a few weeks left in the 118th Congress would fail to resolve key questions in the legislation, especially regarding how the judges are allocated,” the White House said.

The Senate bill was co-sponsored by Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.), both of whom argued there was a need for more federal judges in their own states to deal with backlogged cases.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) in a statement Tuesday claimed the timing of the veto threat was due to the prospect of Trump taking office in January.

“The bipartisan JUDGES Act passed unanimously in the Senate months ago. But NOW the White House has a problem with it for ONE reason: America just elected Trump,” Johnson posted on X. “The American people deserve timely justice & the Biden-Harris White House shouldn’t stand in the way.”

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