At Least 3 Judges Eyed as Biden Mulls Supreme Court Pick

At Least 3 Judges Eyed as Biden Mulls Supreme Court Pick (1)

At least three Supreme Court justices are on Biden’s radar as he contemplates a nomination.

WASHINGTON (CSU) – The US president has indicated his dissatisfaction with the present administration. President Joe Biden is reportedly considering at least three judges for a future Supreme Court vacancy, according to aides and allies, as he prepares to fulfill his campaign pledge of appointing the nation’s first Black woman to the court.

Biden and Justice Stephen Breyer are planning to conduct a ceremony at the White House on Thursday to formally announce Breyer’s intention to retire, according to a person familiar with the preparations who wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss it in advance.

According to four people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss White House discussions, early talks about a successor have focused on US Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, US District Judge J. Michelle Childs, and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger. Jackson and Kruger have been mentioned as potential candidates for a long time.

Biden has focused his efforts since assuming office in January 2021 on nominating a diverse group of justices to the federal bench, appointing five Black women to federal appeals courts, and presenting three more names to the Senate. Biden aides and associates thought that the group may produce more future Supreme Court nominations, especially because virtually all of the prior Supreme Court nominees have been federal appeals judges.

“He has a great pool from which to pick a candidate, as well as additional sources.” “This is a historic occasion to choose someone with a decent record on civil and human rights,” NAACP president Derrick Johnson said.

Biden has secured the confirmation of 40 judges at the conclusion of his first year, the most since Ronald Reagan’s presidency. 80 percent of them are women, and 53 percent are persons of color, according to the White House.

Jackson, 51, was nominated for a federal judgeship by President Barack Obama. Vice President Joe Biden named her to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She started her legal career working for Breyer as a legal clerk.

Childs, a federal judge in South Carolina, has been nominated for a seat on the same circuit court, but his nomination has yet to be confirmed. Her name has become well-known as a result of the support she has received from a number of high-profile politicians, including Rep. James Clyburn, D-South Carolina.

Kruger, a Harvard and Yale law graduate, formerly served as a Supreme Court clerk and has spoken before the justices on behalf of the federal government in a dozen cases.

Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, will depart the Supreme Court at the end of the summer, according to two people who confirmed the news to The Associated Press on Wednesday. They spoke on the condition of anonymity so that Breyer’s public comments would not be jeopardized.

The White House was going to work, and a formal nomination was anticipated to take at least a few weeks, since the Senate might accept a successor before there was an official vacancy.

On Wednesday, Biden indicated he would not comment on Breyer’s decision until it was made public.

“Every justice should be entitled to decide what he or she wants to do and announce it independently,” Biden said. “Let him say anything he wants, and I’ll be delighted to discuss it afterwards.”

When Biden was running for President, he declared that if he had the chance to choose someone to the Supreme Court, he would select a Black woman to make history. He has maintained his promise since then.

“It would be an honor, an honor to nominate the first African-American woman for president.” Because it should represent the country. “It’s past time,” Biden said in February 2020, right before the South Carolina presidential primary.

The addition of a Black woman to the court would be the first in a series of firsts: the nine-member court would have four female justices and two Black justices serving at the same time. Justice Clarence Thomas is the only African-American justice on the court, and just the second in history after Thurgood Marshall.

And Biden would have the chance to show Black voters, who are increasingly disgruntled with a president they helped elect, that he is serious about their concerns, particularly after he failed to enact voting rights legislation.

At the same time, if Breyer were to be replaced by another liberal member, the court’s ideological makeup would remain unchanged. Conservatives outnumber liberals on the Supreme Court by a 6-3 majority, and Donald Trump’s three picks have bolstered an already conservative court.

According to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, Biden’s nomination “will have a quick hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee and will be considered and confirmed by the whole United States Senate with all deliberate haste.”

Republicans, on the other hand, are still enraged about Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s rocky confirmation process in 2018. Democrats still have the 50 votes needed to confirm a nominee, plus Vice President Kamala Harris as a tiebreaker.

Republicans who changed Senate rules during Trump’s administration to allow Supreme Court nominees to be approved by a simple majority seemed to be accepting of the outcome. “If the Democrats stick together — which I expect they will,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a key Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “They have the ability to replace Justice Breyer in 2022 without one Republican vote in support,” he said.

Despite this, Democrats have been unable to enlist the support of all of their members in support of Biden’s social and environmental spending agenda, or to pass a voting rights bill.

From 1987 until 1995, Biden led the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he oversaw six Supreme Court confirmation hearings, including Breyer’s.

And Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff and the committee’s general counsel, a former Supreme Court law clerk, will play a crucial part in the process.

Another Black woman touted as a possibility is Holly Thomas, a longstanding civil rights lawyer who Biden named to the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, and Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, a former public defender who Biden nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.

It’s possible that Biden will choose someone from outside the judiciary, but it’s unlikely. Sherrilyn Ifill, 59, is the executive director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She has been the executive director of the fund since 2013, and she has said that she will step down in the spring.

Since President Barack Obama appointed Elena Kagan to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens in 2010, the Supreme Court has had three female members. Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Latina judge, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Obama’s two picks, sat across from Kagan. Eight days after Ginsburg’s death in September 2020, Trump named Amy Coney Barrett as her replacement.

Follow us on Twitter

Also, Read Families Call for Justice After 3 Women Killed in Violent Crimes in Recent Days

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top
Scroll to Top