CBS News
Senate set to confirm 200th Biden judge as Democrats tout “major milestone”
Washington — The Senate on Wednesday is set to confirm President Biden’s 200th judicial nominee, surpassing the number of appointments to the federal judiciary made by his two most recent predecessors at this point in their presidencies.
The Senate will mark the milestone after its approval of Krissa Lanham on Tuesday and with the vote on Angela Martinez’s confirmation Wednesday to seats on the federal district court in Arizona. With the confirmations of the nominees to the federal bench, Mr. Biden will have placed 42 judges on the U.S. courts of appeals, 155 judges on the U.S. district courts and two on the Court of International Trade. He also named Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court in 2022, a history-making nomination as she became the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.
There are 43 current open seats on the federal judiciary, and another 28 future vacancies, according to the U.S. Courts. Mr. Biden has two dozen nominees pending. The country has more than 860 authorized judgeships.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the confirmations a “major milestone,” saying on the Senate floor on Monday in preparation for the votes that “it’s a figure — 200 — that we can all be proud of, and shows how intensely focused we are on filling the bench with jurists who will make our democracy stronger and uphold the rule of law.”
Shawn Thew / Getty Images
Mr. Biden’s judicial appointments have slightly outpaced former President Donald Trump’s at this point in his fourth year in office. But surpassing the 234 judges Trump named to the federal bench during his first and sole term may be difficult given the Senate’s schedule in the run-up to the November election, since several Democratic senators in states won by Trump in 2020 are working to hold on to their seats and are likely to spend the coming months on the campaign trail.
“I think it’s pretty substantial when you consider what we’ve been up against,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin told CBS News of the milestone, noting the makeup of the narrowly divided Senate and the one-vote Democratic advantage in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which considers the president’s nominations. The Senate consists of 48 Democrats, 49 Republicans and three independents who typically vote with Democrats. A simple majority, 51 votes, is needed to confirm a judicial nominee.
Though Durbin cheered the Senate’s work in confirming Mr. Biden’s judicial nominees, he explained why it would be hard to match or surpass the number confirmed during the Trump administration.
“It’s tough because Trump had a spurt there at the end when they gave him a package, I think there were a dozen judges in that package, maybe more,” Durbin added. “If we can get that kind of treatment from Sen. McConnell, I think we can reach it.”
The focus on judicial nominees sharpened under Trump, as he sought to reshape the federal judiciary, and his appointments to the Supreme Court may be the most enduring and consequential actions of his presidency. Trump named three justices to the nation’s highest court, widening its conservative majority to 6-3. Since the end of his administration in January 2021, the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and ended affirmative action in higher education, and is poised to issue rulings curtailing federal regulatory power in the coming weeks.
Mr. Biden has emphasized diversity in his judicial nominees, including in the professional backgrounds of those the president has picked to serve.
The White House has stressed when announcing new rounds of judicial nominees that the president’s picks fulfill his “promise to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country — both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds.”
By his first six months in office, Mr. Biden matched Obama’s number of nominees to the federal appellate courts who worked as public defenders. Additionally, among the president’s confirmed judges, more than 60% are women and over 60% are people of color, according to the White House.
The president also appointed the first Muslim American federal judge in U.S. history, Zahid Quraishi, to the federal district court in New Jersey.
CBS News
Floods, landslides struck parts of Bosnia as residents slept, leaving at least 16 dead and several missing
A severe rainstorm struck Bosnia overnight Friday, killing at least 16 people in floods and landslides in several towns and villages in central and southern parts of the country, with surging waters rushing into people’s homes as they were sleeping.
Rescue services in the south said several people were missing and called on volunteers and the army to assist as roads were closed and houses left without electricity.
Josip Kalem, a resident of Fojnica, one of the towns hit by the floods, said his dog’s barking woke him up at around 4 a.m. When he came out on the terrace, he saw the water rising rapidly.
“I came down, woke up my wife, and we looked around, we could not get out of the house. We saw more and more water coming in,” he said. “All of a sudden, the water was flooding the garage, basement, my car — everything. The water swept it all away, including my dog. Flood took it downstream.”
Andja Milesic, another resident of Fojnica, also said she was caught by surprise in the middle of the night.
“When I woke up, my bedroom floor was already soaked. I walked into the hallway — water was everywhere — the living room, everywhere,” she said. “It was horrible.”
Armin Durgut / AP
Darko Juka, a spokesman for the local administration, said at least 14 people had died in and around the southern town of Jablanica. Officials later said two more bodies have been found.
“Those are the ones who have been discovered by rescuers,” he said. “We still don’t know the final death toll.”
“I don’t remember such a crisis since the war,” Juka said referring to the 1992-95 war in Bosnia that left the country in ruins. “The scale of this chaotic situation is harrowing.”
Defense Minister Zukan Helez told N1 regional television that troops have been engaged to help and that the casualties were reported.
Helez said that “hour after hour we are receiving news about new victims. … Our first priority is to save the people who are alive and buried in houses where the landslides are.”
A pregnant woman lost her baby after she was rescued from the floods and transferred to a hospital in the regional center of Mostar. Authorities said doctors were fighting for her life as well. Separately, a child was successfully rescued and hospitalized, local officials said.
Rescue services in the towns of Jablanica and Kiseljak said the power was off overnight and mobile phones lost their signal.
The Jablanica fire station said that the town was completely inaccessible because roads and trainlines were closed.
“The police informed us that the railroad is also blocked,” the state rescue service said in a statement. “You can’t get in or out of Jablanica at the moment. Landline phones are working, but mobile phones have no signal.”
It urged people not to venture out on the flooded streets.
Human-caused climate change increases the intensity of rainfall because warm air holds more moisture. This summer, the Balkans were also hit by long-lasting record temperatures, causing a drought. Scientists said the dried-out land has hampered the absorption of floodwaters.
Armin Durgut / AP
Drone footage broadcast on Bosnian media showed villages and towns completely submerged under water, while videos on social networks showed dramatic scenes of muddy torrents and damaged roads.
One of the busiest roads linking Sarajevo with the Adriatic coast via Jablanica was swept into a river, together with a railway line in a huge landslide, according to photos.
“Many people are endangered because of big waters and landslides. There is information about victims and many injured and missing persons,” said the civic protection service.
Authorities urged people to stay on the upper floors of their homes. Reports said surging waters swept away domestic animals and cars as the water swiftly filled up lower floors of buildings.
The heavy rains and strong winds were also reported in neighboring Croatia, where several roads were closed and the capital of Zagreb prepared for the swollen Sava River to burst its banks.
Heavy winds have hampered traffic along the southern coast of the Adriatic Sea, and flash floods caused by heavy rain threatened several towns and villages in Croatia.
Floods caused by torrential rains were also reported in Montenegro, south of Bosnia, where some villages were cut off and roads and homes flooded.
In 2014, floodwaters triggered more than 3,000 landslides across the Balkans, laying waste to entire towns and villages and disturbing land mines leftover from the region’s 1990s war, along with warning signs that marked the unexploded weapons.
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