President Joe Biden vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have created new judgeships during future presidential administrations Monday night, barring President-elect Donald Trump the opportunity to appoint a maximum of 22 new federal district court judges during his second term.
Biden cited House GOP leadership’s decision to delay taking up the legislation until after the election and concerns regarding the motivations behind Republican lawmakers’ support for the bill as his rationale for opposing an expansion of the country’s federal judicial branch, according to a veto statement published on Monday.
“S. 4199 would create new judgeships in States where Senators have sought to hold open existing judicial vacancies,” Biden wrote in a statement. “Those efforts to hold open vacancies suggest that concerns about judicial economy and caseload are not the true motivating…