White House Senior Counsel Paige Herwig is the man who has driven President Joe Biden’s success in diversifying the nation’s federal courts, is leaving her post.
Herwig will be moving to a new role within the administration The Sunday Review is reporting. The move will take place in the coming weeks.
Herwig has been in the counsel’s office since day one of Biden’s She is the team leader with the most experience. She’s a big reason why Biden’s Most of his accomplishments have been in the area of judicial nominating. She’s been overseeing the White House’s aggressive strategy for selecting, nominating and confirming his judges.
The president has confirmed 126 people to lifetime federal judgeships during his tenure, which is more than his three predecessors — Donald Trump (104), Barack Obama (83) and George W. Bush (124) — had confirmed by this point in their presidencies.
Ketanji brown Jackson is one of the Supreme Court’s Ketanji judges.
“Paige is a phenomenal lawyer, leader, and person, who led the nominations team in Counsel’s Office with the utmost grace and skill,” The former White House Dana Remus was Herwig’s counsel for the majority of Herwig’s tenure.
Beyond sheer numbers, Biden has infused badly needed diversity onto the nation’s mostly white, mostly male federal bench. Sixty six percent of Biden’s nominees and 70 percent of confirmed judges are female. His nominees make up 65 percent people of colour, while 64% of confirmed judges are also people of colour.
“Paige is the unsung hero of one of the administration’s most critical achievements — appointing a record number of federal judges with record diversity by race and gender and professional experience,” The former White House Ron Klain was Herwig’s former chief of Staff. “None of this would have happened without Paige’s legal acumen and legislative savvy.”
Herwig’s legwork has also led to a number of historic firsts in terms of who Biden has put onto the courts. These include the first Muslim American federal judge, the first two openly LGBTQ women to serve as U.S. circuit court judges, a spike in Hispanic and Asian American representation on the courts, and 12 Black women being confirmed as circuit court judges ― more than all past presidents combined.
That’s in addition to Biden confirming a record number of public defenders to circuit court seats, a shift from the more traditional corporate lawyers tapped for these jobs.
Biden’s name will be inscribed on history books as the person who put these individuals into permanent federal benches. Democrats might get a small footnote in history for the confirmation of these people by the Senate. Herwig probably won’t be mentioned at all. But she’s been leading the behind-the-scenes work of picking and vetting all of them in the first place, and lining up public support for these people so they’ll have a (hopefully) smooth path ahead in the Senate from the moment the president makes their nominations official.
“Paige is equal parts brilliant and relentless,” The following are some of the ways to get in touch with each other White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients
“From day one of the Biden-Harris transition, Paige crafted an aggressive strategy to confirm the most diverse and impressive judicial nominees in history,” He then continued to refer to Kamala Harris.
Anadolu Agency through Getty Images
Progressives hailed Biden Herwig is one of the people he chose for this role, and they all know Herwig well from previous positions.
In addition to serving on the Biden-Harris transition team, Herwig was chief nominations counsel for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) when she was the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking member. Herwig served as a counselor for former U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch, and was a special assistant to Obama. Herwig focused her work on nominations to the judiciary.
Prior to those jobs, Herwig was chief of staff and senior counsel at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy during the Obama administration. She was also deputy chief lawyer for Demand Justice – a progressive advocacy group.
Herwig’s team spent many months putting together the group of nominees that Biden would unveil in March 2021. The The batch featured the most Black women circuit court nominees (three) ever nominated at one time, and also a mixture of professionals and demographically different picks, from New Jersey to Maryland and Colorado, and New Mexico.
Herwig was also key in ushering Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination through the Senate in 2022. Herwig sat on the Senate balcony when the vote was held and Jackson’s remarks were made. White House South Lawn, a few weeks later. gave a specific shoutout Herwig
“I am … particularly grateful for the awe-inspiring leadership of White House Counsel Dana Remus. Of Paige Herwig,” Jackson slammed the door to applause. “Where is Paige?”
Anadolu Agency through Getty Images
Herwig’s departure comes at a pivotal moment for Biden’s Nominations for the judiciary
The White House It was easier for everyone to choose and confirm candidates in the last two years because it focused on filling court vacancies primarily in states with Democratic Senators. But now, with vacancies building up in states led by Republican senators, it’s not as simple to nominate people who everyone can agree on. Some GOP senators might not want to assist the White House Pick anyone hoping for a Republican future president to go with conservative candidates.
Republicans are also using a Senate Judiciary Committee courtesy to stop Biden’s Court picks The The term courtesy can also be used to describe the “blue slip rule,” asks that a senator turn in a blue slip of paper as a show of support for advancing a judicial nominee from that senator’s home state. If both of a nominee’s home-state senators turn in their blue slips, they get a hearing. If only one turns in a blue slip, or neither does, the nominee doesn’t get a hearing.
Republicans haven’t been turning in blue slips for many of Biden’s The court’s selections effectively kill their nominations. In a recent committee hearing, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois (D) noted that Democrats turned in 110 “blue slips” during the Trump Administration. Republicans signed 17 documents during the Biden administration.
Apparently, some Republicans refuse to cooperate with other Republicans. White House The states have no obligation to do anything at all in order to fill any court vacancies. A recent letter from progressive groups to Durbin indicates that out of 45 current district court vacancies subject to GOP blue slips, 41 don’t have nominees in the queue.
It’s on Durbin to decide whether to keep the blue slip rule in place. The progressive groups are pressuring Durbin to do so. Biden’s court picks can get moving again, but so far he’s held firm in keeping the tradition. The White House counsel’s office doesn’t have any control over this, and it’s not about to pressure Durbin to drop the blue slip rule. However, the logjam does put pressure on Durbin. White House It is better to make deals with GOP Senators, so that judicial nominees in their state will get their full support right from the beginning. This would be preferable than nominating someone who Republicans might not like only to see them stuck up in the committee.
The White House counsel’s office will have to navigate all of these dynamics without Herwig. White House Stuart Delery says her absence is felt.
“Paige’s deep experience and knowledge of the nominations process has been a driving force behind the President’s historic record and breadth of judicial confirmations,“ Delery said in a statement. “Her commitment to ensuring that our federal bench contains highly qualified candidates who reflect the diversity of the country has been an incredible asset to the White House. She will be greatly missed.”
