From serving as the chair of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee to appointing a Supreme Court justice, President Joe Biden has a unique understanding of the importance of the judicial branch.

As he leaves the White House to a president who has promised to undo many of his signature policies, one of Biden's accomplishments is sure to be long-lasting: the federal judges he appointed over the last four years.  

“If there's one thing that presidents do that outlives their presidency, it's appoint federal judges,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. “Federal judges serve for life — so you can appoint people as president who are in your 40s, your 50s, and they can serve for decades and decades.”

Of the 235 judicial nominees confirmed during Biden’s presidency, 187 were to district courts, 45 were to the nation’s courts of appeals, two were to the United States Court of International Trade and one was to the Supreme Court. Some of those judges may eventually hear legal challenges to Biden’s policies as well as those of his successor, President-elect Donald Trump.

“I think he was very efficient in his one term of appointing a number of lower court judges," Levinson said. "I mean, is it enough? That I think will depend on your perspective on the challenges and on how the judges rule. But it is certainly the case that we should focus well beyond the Supreme Court and look at all of those judges who make the vast majority of the decisions again in trials in the circuit court."

Last year, Senate leaders introduced a bipartisan bill to end “judge shopping” — the practice of filing cases in jurisdictions where judges are more likely to rule favorably on them. Opponents of Biden’s policies, for example, routinely brought challenges to the right-leaning 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. 

The law did not pass, and now left-leaning groups are expected to judge-shop cases fighting Trump’s agenda.

“Without meaningful reform, without meaningful limits on the ability to judge-shop, do I think Democrats will now avail themselves of that opportunity when they're challenging either executive actions or new pieces of legislation? Yes, absolutely,” said Levinson. Federal judges, Levinson predicts, will hear cases from everything including environmental policy, immigration and the power of the presidency over the next several months and years. 

Levinson said it will likely be some time before the impact of Biden’s judicial appointees is felt. It can take months, and sometimes years, for challenges to presidential policies to make their way through the legal system. But while it’s not the flashiest of achievements, it may just be the achievement that protects his legislative legacy.