Noting how distinct federal circuit appointments may impact criminal jurisprudence

I have flagged in in prior posts some prior research highlighting and lamenting that, in rcent times, former prosecutors are "vastly overrepresented on the federal bench" and that people with "careers in private practice or as federal prosecutors [make] up more than 70 percent of all sitting appellate judges."  Against that backdrop, it is interesting to see this new National Law Journal piece headlined "Biden's Judges Have Made the Judiciary More Diverse. How Are They Shaping the Law?" 

The piece's subheadline provides a summary: "While it's likely too early to see major swings in the law, the president's appointees' individual opinions on criminal law and qualified immunity show the impact the judges' diverse professional backgrounds have on their jurisprudence."  The article is short on rigorous analysis, but it still notes an (unsurprising) issue worth watching (and on which I would be eager to hear input from others).  Here are excerpts:

While it’s likely too early to see Biden’s judges creating major shifts in the law, as his first term comes to an end, court watchers say they see signs his appellate picks may be using their personal experiences in analyzing cases. Unlike previous administrations that have mainly put prosecutors and Big Law attorneys on the bench, Biden has nominated individuals with civil rights advocacy and public defense backgrounds.

“Why a judge’s past experience may be important, particularly in this example [of Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi], is that Biden has nominated a record number of public defenders at the circuit level,” said Jonathan King, a political science professor at West Virginia University. “As such, these judges may use their experience when interpreting laws and impacting policy in their various circuits.”

Biden broke President Barack Obama’s record for appointing the highest number of circuit judges with public defense backgrounds to the bench. And breaking from past administrations, Biden has tapped numerous appellate judges who worked at civil rights organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and reproductive rights groups such as Planned Parenthood.

Jessica Schoenherr, a University of South Carolina political science professor, agreed that Biden appointees’ professional experiences may influence how they view facts presented in certain cases.... “It’s maybe not surprising that we’re seeing that happen with [Biden’s] judges because they’ve got a different judicial profile at this point in terms of what kind of law they’ve worked with,” Schoenherr said. “They’ve just had different experiences with the way that the law works.”...

John P. Collins, a George Washington University law professor, said he’s watching for strong dissents from Biden appointees, particularly on conservative courts such as the Fifth Circuit or Eleventh Circuit.  In general though, Collins said Biden’s picks don’t seem as eager as Trump’s appointees did in their first years on the bench to overtly push the law in a certain direction. Several Trump-appointed judges, such as Lawrence VanDyke of the Ninth Circuit and James Ho of the Fifth Circuit, made headlines for their fiery opinions criticizing their fellow panel members and calling for circuit precedent to be overturned.