House passes bill to increase judicial seats amid Biden veto threat

Dec. 12 (UPI) — President Joe Biden is leaning toward vetoing a bipartisan bill that would create additional judicial seats over the next several years after the House passed the measure on Thursday.

The Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solves, or JUDGES, Act passed with a 236-173 vote after the Senate unanimously passed the measure back in August.

It would create 66 court seats over the next 10 years to lower the caseloads in high-volume areas like California and Texas.

The Biden administration, however, has questioned motivation, with it coming to his desk just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

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

The Biden administration was also angered that the House refused to take up the bill until after the election while the Senate passed it in the summer, appearing to make sure that Trump would have the first crack at the new appointments.

Overturning a presidential veto, where two-thirds of both chambers agree, is rare in hyper-partisan times.

Congress last took such action when it overturned Trump’s veto of the defense bill in 2021.

House Speaker Mike Johson, R-La., has argued that it is Democrats who are playing politics with the bill, saying that Democrats favored the bill overwhelmingly before the election when they believed Vice President Kamala Harris would win. He charged that the new judgeships are desperately needed in an overburdened judiciary.

Republicans have pointed to the appointments being staggered, giving Trump 25 of the 66 appointments over the 10 years of the act.

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UPI