After an explosion of legal confirmations in the final weeks of the 118th Congress, President Joe Biden will end his term in the White House after appointing 228 judges to the federal courts. This figure includes a record number of racial or ethnic and minorities.

Biden’s total narrowly eclipses the 226 federal judges Donald Trump appointed during his first term as president. Trump, however, will soon be able to add to his tally as he prepares to take office for a second term, which will start with a Republican Senate majority.

While Biden’s mandate is coming to an end, here is a review of federal judges that the 46th President appointed his 4 years for the White House. These studies are based on the knowledge of the Federal Judicial Center, the branch of studies and schooling of the Federal Judicial Power.

This investigation focuses only on the judges appointed before the 91 District Courts and Thirteen Appeal Courts governed through article III of the American Constitution, as well as in the Supreme Court of the United States. It excludes the judges appointed to specialized courts, such as the International Trade Court of the United States, and other persons appointed for non -joint territorial courses III in Guam, in the Mariana Islands of the North and the American Virgin Islands. To obtain additional methodological information, click on the “How we did this” table below.

Federal judicial appointments are a component of a president’s legacy. As Joe Biden prepares to leave the White House, we look at how his record of judicial appointments compares to that of other recent presidents, going back to Jimmy Carter. The studies are based on data published through the Federal Judicial Center, the Federal Judicial Branch’s academic and research firm.

Our research focuses only on judges who serve the 3 main grades of the federal court system: the 91 district courts and thirteen appellate courts governed through Article III of the U. S. Constitution, as well as the U. S. Supreme Court. It excludes judges appointed to specialized tribunals, such as the United States International Trade Tribunal, and other persons appointed to non-articular territorial courses III in Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U. S. Virgin Islands.

This analysis counts judges once under each president’s total, even if they were appointed to multiple positions. For example, Biden appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to an appeals court in 2021 before elevating her to the Supreme Court a year later. Biden’s total counts Jackson only once.

White, black, black and Asian judges only perceive those who identify as non -Hispanics of single race, according to the Federal Judicial Center. Hispanic judges are those who identify themselves as Hispanics or Latinos. The “other” judges come with Those who identify as the American Indians, the Chaldeans, those of the Middle East / Africa of the North, the peasants, the Pakistanis or Portuguese, as well as those who are multi -racial or multi -ethnic.

Active federal judges in this analysis exclude those who are on senior status. As of Jan. 7, 2025, there were 833 active judges, while another 624 were on senior status – a form of semiretirement that judges can take if they meet certain criteria.

Trump appointed less judges of the district courts who Biden (174 opposite to 187) even more judges of the Court of Appeals (54 opposite to 45). He also appointed 3 Judges of the Supreme Court his first term: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Trump’s main trio was the vital of all the presidents of Ronald Reagan, who appointed four.

Democratic presidents have long been more likely than Republican presidents to appoint women justices. In fact, Democrats have appointed 70% of all women who have already been federal judges.

But appointing women has become more common in both parties over time. For example, while women accounted for just 8% of Reagan’s judicial appointees, they made up a growing share of each subsequent Republican president’s appointees (19% for George H.W. Bush, 22% for George W. Bush and 24% for Trump).

Biden, namely, stands out for appointing minority women to the federal judiciary. He has appointed more black women (35 years), Hispanic women (19) and Asian women (17) than any other president. Everything that 37% of Biden’s appointees said. – 8five of 228 – are women of a race or ethnicity other than white alone. By comparison, five percent of Trump’s judicial appointees were women of a non-white race or ethnicity.

The number of active adjustments of federal judges due to pensions, resignations, new appointments and other reasons. But as of January 7, other people named Biden represented:

In general, the Democratic presidents appointed 60 % of all active judges at the level of the District Court, while Republican leaders appointed the remaining 40 %. The Supreme Court has twice more appointed than democratic presidents (six to three).

Note: This is an update of an article published on August 9, 2022.

John Gramlich is an associate director at Pew Research Center.

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