WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is eyeing at least three judges for an expected vacancy on the Supreme Court as he prepares to quickly deliver on his campaign pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the nation’s highest court, according to aides and allies.
With Justice Stephen Breyer planning to retire, early discussions about a successor are focusing on U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, according to four people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss White House deliberations. Jackson and Kruger have long been seen as possible nominees.
Since Biden took office in January 2021, he has focused on nominating a diverse group of judges to the federal bench, installing five Black women on federal appeals courts, with three more nominations pending before the Senate. Other possible candidates for the high court could come from among that group, Biden aides and allies said, especially since almost all of the recent Supreme Court nominees have been federal appeals judges.
“He has a strong pool to select a candidate from, in addition to other sources. This is an historic opportunity to appoint someone with a strong record on civil and human rights,” said Derrick Johnson, the NAACP’s president.
By the end of his first term, Biden had won confirmation of 40 judges, the most since President Ronald Reagan. Of those, 80% are women and 53% are people of color, according to the White House.
Jackson, 51, was nominated by President Barack Obama to be a district court judge. Biden elevated her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Early in her career, she was also a law clerk for Breyer.
Childs, a federal judge in South Carolina, has been nominated but not yet confirmed to serve on the same circuit court. Her name has surfaced partly because she is a favorite among some high-profile lawmakers, including Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C.
Kruger, a graduate of Harvard and Yale’s law school, was previously a Supreme Court clerk and has argued a dozen cases before the justices as a lawyer for the federal government.
Breyer, 83, will retire at the end of the summer, according to two sources who confirmed the news to The Associated Press on Wednesday. They spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to preempt Breyer’s formal announcement.
But the Senate can confirm a successor before there is a formal vacancy, so the White House was getting to work and it was expected to take at least a few weeks before a nomination was formalized.
Biden said Wednesday he wasn’t going to get ahead of Breyer’s announcement.
“Every justice should have an opportunity to decide what he or she is going to do and announce it on their own,” Biden said. “Let him make whatever statement he’s going to make and I’ll be happy to talk about it later.”
When Biden was running for the White House, he said that if he had the chance to nominate someone to the court, he would make history by choosing a Black woman. And he’s reiterated that pledge since.
“As president, I’d be honored, honored to appoint the first African American woman. Because it should look like the country. It’s long past time,” Biden said in February 2020 shortly before South Carolina’s presidential primary.
Adding a Black woman to the court would mean a series of firsts — four female justices and two Black justices serving at the same time on the nine-member court. Justice Clarence Thomas is the court’s only Black justice and just the second ever, after Thurgood Marshall.
And Biden would have the chance to show Black voters increasingly frustrated with a president they helped to elect that he is serious about their concerns, particularly after he has been unable to push through voting rights legislation.
At the same time, Breyer’s replacement by another liberal justice would not change the ideological makeup of the court. Conservatives outnumber liberals by 6-3, and Donald Trump’s three nominees made an already conservative court even more conservative.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Biden’s nominee “will receive a prompt hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee and will be considered and confirmed by the full United States Senate with all deliberate speed.”
But Republicans in particular remain upset about Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s contentious 2018 hearing. Still, Democrats have the 50 votes plus a tiebreaker in Vice President Kamala Harris that they need to confirm a nominee.
Republicans who changed the Senate rules during the Trump-era to allow simple majority confirmation of Supreme Court nominees appeared resigned to the outcome. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, an influential Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement, “If all Democrats hang together — which I expect they will — they have the power to replace Justice Breyer in 2022 without one Republican vote in support.”
Nonetheless, Democrats have also been unable to get all their members on board for Biden’s social and environmental spending agenda or to move forward with a voting rights bill.
As a senator, Biden served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, overseeing six Supreme Court confirmation hearings from 1987 to 1995, including Breyer’s.
And one person who will be central to Biden’s process is chief of staff Ron Klain, a former Supreme Court law clerk and chief counsel to that committee.
Two other Black women whom Biden appointed to federal appeals courts are also seen as contenders: Holly Thomas, a longtime civil rights lawyer he named to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, and Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, a former public defender he named to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.
Biden could also choose someone from outside the judiciary, though that seems less likely. One contender would be the head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Sherrilyn Ifill, 59. She has headed the fund since 2013 and has announced she is stepping down in the spring.
The Supreme Court has had three women on it for more than a decade, since 2010, when Obama named Justice Elena Kagan to the court to replace the retiring John Paul Stevens. Kagan joined Obama’s other nominee, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Latina justice, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. When Ginsburg died in September 2020, Trump announced his choice of Amy Coney Barrett eight days later.
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Associated Press writer Mark Sherman contributed to this report.
© 2022 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Blacks make up about 10% of the population, so black women make up about 5%. Eliminating 95% of the population from consideration should make his choice fairly easy. That whole “discrimination” thing in the constitution, well, never mind.
The constitution? What is that? Does anybody know?
IF A DEM Has no knowledge of the constitution, OR CARES TO FOLLOW IT, they should be immediately STRIPPED OF THEIR office, citizenship and KICKED the hell out of the nation…
Glad you asked. Here ya go:
The Original Constitution has less than 5000 words. The current Constitution with the 27 amendments has about 7500 words. At 12-pt, Times New Roman font, that comes to about 19 pages, single spaced on a 8.5×11 page with 1″ margins.
Annotated Constitution 2017, approx 3,000 pages.
https://www.congress.gov/content/conan/pdf/GPO-CONAN-2017.pdf
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
But to Democrats only obey this if one is a person of color, a woman or of the LGBTQ trash.
That is why Joe calls it his short list,,,,its short any White nominees. Are there not Constitutional laws preventing this discrimination? Let alone to announce it to the public.?
Attn: all America “Job Opening in The Supreme Court, White people need not apply”,,,,,Remember in November so Joe does not get away with Discriminating against White people whose voters, way out number the number of black voters he seeks to confuse and buy with nominee Judicial currency. He now sells out more voters than he can ever buy back in loyalty, showing he is a traitor to all races he enlarges people and races, only if they enlarge Joe and his criminal Democrat party of traitors to all concepts of Blind Justice and equal opportunity at power.
IF you are white or male, that law DOES NOT EVER apply to protect you…
The document” known as the CONSTITUTION, IS READ AS A LIVING DOCUMENT THAT Changes with the times but I believe that the Constitution has always Been based on ” NATURAL LAW ” and not added to to suit modern Interpetation because of progressive s whims of the moment.
Justice Thomas (a great lawyer) means that Black justice(s) hold 11% of the SCOTUS positions. As black people represent 12.4% of the population, they are pretty well represented now. Add another and blacks would hold 22% of the power, seems disproportionate to me.
But, really, disenfranchising more than 95% of all lawyers from consideration is what I see as the main problem. We should be looking for the best lawyers, not ones that fill a quota.
IF the left had their way, ONLY MINORITIES would be on the Scotus… NO WHITE MEN period.
…and they’re in approximately 50% of commercials and other advertising.
If i was an alien, and was wondering what the population of this nation was, and all i got to see was tv/adverts.. I’d think 90% of this nation was black/latino/LGBTQ, while the 10% that was white, was ALWAYS hateful, always incompetent, and always useless…
Also commit approximately 90% of violent crime.
Its apparent that The Elite of the de ocrat , Socialist,- Com u ist Party Of America didn’t think ery Highly Of Supreme Court Justice Stepten Byren’s opunions that he Joined In, or were against during His Thirty Years on The Supreme Court or
the democrat president, Joe Biden Would have a more diverse of Qualified noninees to have picked from, Fo Instance Joe Biden said his Qualifications were, That they be a Black Female, Thats All, Any But White Men were the Only requirementments to sit on the Supreme Court…
That is—the three talking heads under consideration. Do they have the ability to see things in black and white—or simply Black??
Since Breyer has yet to announce himself, If I were him and he was a patriot, I’d tell those Media socialist manipulators who let the cat out of the bag to steal his glory, that I was retiring, but not till November, so THE PEOPLE, not THE PARTY or the Media could choose my replacement in the coming mid-tern elections. and Constitutionally designed. Bucking the will of THE PEOPLE and shoving race only qualified people down our throats is something traitors do,,,,so just who are you Breyer, Patriot or Quisling?
I would LOVE TO see him say “I WAS going to resign, but NOW YOU have shown your overt racism and sexism, i am NOT> STICK That in your pipe and smoke it!”
To ” Son of Thunder: A Very Good interpetation of How The Socialist, – Communist , democrat President and Party elite See Things ” In Black And White ( Race Issues. )
I hear Joe first sought to kill two birds with one stone, black and female, but now is going to go for a political hat trick of Female, Black, and Queer all in one swoop, and is waiting to see who wins the next Ru Paul Drag Race to win qualifications as his next Supreme Court Justice, nominee, no doubt followed by more Race chanting “Let’s Go Brandon” accolades from the race stands of their next Democrat obsessed and politically organized race events, where no checkered flags are awarded at the end of their races, just black flag spray to kill off and keep the designated Conservative deplorables like Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett and Democrat declared social termites who vote, from taking back total control. If there is a God of Justice,,,If I were Joe’s nominee, I’d would not walk the streets outside without wearng a full-time lightening rod.
Biden’s pick will be worse than Breyer but Breyer votes to change the Constitution anyway. At least Biden’s not replacing a constitutional justice with a roaring radical. Not yet, please God, don’t let that happen.
Constitutional justices are what we need, not conservative justices, not liberal or radical justices, but justices who will interpret the Constitution as the Founders intended it to be. It’s the media that says conservative justice in an effort to further divide the country. We should not be using that term. Constitutional justice is better.
No one should ever be selected on the basis of gender, skin color or any reason other than merit but that’s the Democrat party of today. Merit is never a factor in their decisions. Gender and color rule in the mind of a Democrat.
I want to see the records of these judges. What decisions have they made on constitutional issues in the past?
COMMENT
ME TOO !!! , going back to when they started getting government pay.
To Rodger Dodger 71
What, Do you think of them as ” Hirelings , ” Yes men and Women to the democrat party .?
From what i’ve seen, ALL three are rabid libtards. So most likely they are AGAINST what the constitution says…
I thought we were always looking for the best person to work for us, not some gender specific race person?
Wouldn’t that be considered racist?
Oh well, I wonder if Barack obama would be considered….?
Mt prediction- bozo picks the hoe, hillary becomes the second in line, bozo is found incompetent, hillary picks the fat black thing from georgia and then hillary becomes the head dildo.
If Harris gets nominated will she cast the tiebreaker in senate to confirm herself?
IF nominated, ii HOPE LEGALLY she couldn’t cast the tie breaker vote on her confirmation.
Is it necessary for scotus to resemble bar from star wars?
Bottle in front of me, or frontal lobotomy,,,It’s all the same to the Democrats. So just how many times have ANY of their party planted Judges sided with the Conservative opinions, compared to the Conservatives siding with Theirs?,,,,crickets.
You’re COLD and accurate.
If they want a black female on the Supreme Court, then the obvious choice is Barack Obama.
Nice job in an extremely target rich environment.
Then You Believe that Barack H. Obama was ” A secret Transgender Type? Barack H. Obama once Said Of Himself that He Served As A blank Slate, ” but He Never Admited To” Being A Transgender, ” Who Knew, “
One of the women he picked is Stacy Abrams sister, NO. Here my pick Condoleezza rice or Anita hill.
AND what’s the bet, SHE IS JUST AS Radical as the fat sister is.
Candace Owens.
I think Whoopi just entered the race to be considered.
Well I am certain that these ladies are the absolute most intelligent, talented, and judicially and constitutionally experienced applicants we could possibly name to the United States Supreme Court. Right! After all, Biden understands his sworn responsibility is to place into nomination the most capable people he can find regardless of race, sex or political alliances. I rest easy knowing how seriously our president takes his responsibilities.
This article is titled wrong. It should read “3 black female TOKENS on Biden’s short list.”