U.S. Senate Democrats on Wednesday secured the confirmation of two more of President Joe Biden's judicial nominees as they race against the clock to fill as many court vacancies as possible before Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
The nominees confirmed by the Democratic-led Senate included Amir Ali, the president and executive director of the civil rights organization the MacArthur Justice Center. His nomination to become a federal trial court judge in Washington, D.C., was cleared on a 50-49 vote.
The Senate also voted 50-48 to confirm Washington Court of Appeals Judge Rebecca Pennell, a former federal public defender, to a life-tenured position as a trial court judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.
Wednesday's votes brought Biden's total number of confirmed judicial nominees to 220, a tally Senate Democratic leaders are vowing to keep adding to before they hand over control of the chamber to Republicans, who secured a Senate majority in the Nov. 5 election.
Republicans at Trump's urging have tried to throw procedural hurdles in the way of those plans to slow the confirmations. But several Republican senators have missed votes to confirm judges since the election.
The son of Egyptian immigrants, Ali will become the fourth Muslim to serve as a life-turned federal judge. All four were appointed by Biden, who has vowed to diversify the federal bench. On Tuesday, the Senate confirmed the third, Mustafa Kasubhai, to serve as a district court judge in Oregon.
Ali has argued three U.S. Supreme Court cases, including as an associate at Jenner Block, where he worked before joining the MacArthur Justice Center in 2017. He became the civil rights group's executive director in 2021.
His recent cases have included representing the mother of Ahmaud Arbery in a civil lawsuit over the murder of the young Black man, who was shot after jogging in a suburban Georgia neighborhood in 2020.
Ali also wrote an amicus brief opposing the travel ban Trump imposed during his first term targeting several Muslim-majority countries that was cited by liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor when she dissented from the court's 5-4 decision in 2018 upholding the policy.
Pennell worked at the Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington and Idaho in Yakima, Washington, from 2000 to 2016, when Democratic Governor Jay Inslee appointed her to serve as a state appellate court judge.
She is the 46th confirmed judicial nominee under Biden to have experience as a public defender, according to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. That's a career background that was often lacking in a federal judiciary long dominated by former prosecutors and ex-law firm partners.
