Biden’s Plan to Name Black Woman to Supreme Court
By Siobhan Hughes
Washington
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee defended President Biden’s plan to pick a Black woman to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created with the coming resignation of Justice Stephen Breyer, saying that it was consistent with actions by past presidents who made demographic factors part of the selection criteria.
“This is not the first time that a president has signaled what they’re looking for in a nominee,” Sen Dick Durbin (D, Ill.), who as the committee leader will have a leading role in the Senate confirmation process, told ABC’s “This Week.”
He said of the potential African-American women nominees: “If they have achieved the level of success in the practice of law and jurisprudence, they’ve done it against great odds.” All potential nominees, he said, would “face the same close scrutiny.”
Mr Biden’s campaign-trail pledge to make a nomination in part based on gender and race is drawing questions from the public and across the aisle, with some Republicans questioning whether the action is further injecting politics into a system that is designed to uphold the rule of law. In an ABC/Ipsos poll released Sunday, 76% of Americans said Mr Biden should “consider all possible nominees” rather than “consider only nominees who are Black women, as he has pledged to do.”
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced his plan to retire after serving more than two decades on the court.
Sen Roger Wicker (R., Miss.) told a Mississippi radio station that the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court would be a beneficiary of affirmative action. The Supreme Court last week said it would take up an affirmative-action case, deciding whether to prohibit the use of race-conscious admissions in higher education.
“The irony is that the Supreme Court is at the very same time hearing cases about this sort of affirmative racial discrimination, while adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of quota,” Mr Wicker told SuperTalk Mississippi Radio last week.
Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) said on “This Week” that she would welcome the appointment of a Black woman to the high court.
“I believe that diversity benefits the Supreme Court,” she said. But she said that Mr Biden had been “clumsy” because he had announced the decision to nominate a Black woman while he was on the campaign trail.
In South Carolina, in a tough fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, Mr. Biden promised to fill any Supreme Court vacancy with a Black woman. One day later, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D, SC), the highest-ranking Black lawmaker in Congress, endorsed Mr Biden, who went on to win the South Carolina presidential primary by roughly 30 points. It was his first primary victory of the campaign and was widely viewed as reviving a floundering campaign.
“I advised that,” Mr. Clyburn said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” of the announcement then. “So he did it, and it made all the difference in the world.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said that South Carolina US District Judge Juliana Michelle Childs, 55 years old, is among those under consideration for the Supreme Court position. Mr Clyburn said that he had mentioned Judge Childs to Mr Biden. Mr Biden announced her nomination to the DC Circuit appeals court months ago, but the White House said it wouldn’t advance that nomination while she was under consideration for the Supreme Court.
“I can’t think of a better person for President Biden to consider for the Supreme Court than Michelle Childs,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R, SC), told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Mr. Graham is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and has voted for judicial nominees picked by Democratic presidents. “She’s considered to be a fair-minded, highly gifted jurist. She’s one of the most decent people I have ever met.”
Among other potential candidates are Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, who joined the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in June after being confirmed by the Senate in a 53-44 vote, mostly along party lines.
Mr Durbin also said that another demographic characteristic—age—was a factor in any decision, given that Supreme Court justices have a lifetime tenure.
“It’s a factor—I’m not going to mislead you,” Mr Durbin said on “Meet the Press.” “We do look for younger candidates, younger by Supreme Court and federal-court standards, but it’s done on both sides. I don’t think there’s any surprise that both Republicans and Democrats would like some longevity in the service.” – Courtesy The Wall Street Journal
