What We Know about President Biden’s Plan to Nominate a New Supreme Court Justice
Image courtesy of The Washington Post
By Noelia Veras
After over two decades serving in the United State’s highest court and being the oldest member of the court, Justice Stephen Breyer has announced plans to retire. Now, President Joe Biden is in the process of delivering on a historic promise he has made to appoint a Black woman to replace Breyer on the Supreme Court.
“I’m here today to express the nation’s gratitude to Justice Stephen Breyer for his remarkable career of public service and his clear-eyed commitment to making our country’s laws work for its people,” Biden said of Breyer, 83, who was nominated to the court in 1994 by President Bill Clinton according to The Washington Post.
President Biden’s nominee will have to get approval by the Senate, but if the Senate does approve the nominee, she will be the first Black female Supreme Court Justice.
“The person I will nominate will be someone of extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity,” said President Biden. “And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court.”
According to a report from Pew Research, only 70 of the 3,843 people who have served as federal judges in the United States have been Black women. That means that less than two percent of Black women have been federal judges.
According to the same report from Pew Research, Biden has already appointed more Black women to the federal bench than any Republican president. Additionally, if his nominee is approved, she will be the third-ever Black justice on the court and its sixth woman ever. 115 people have served on the Court.
According to The Wall Street Journal, some of the possible nominees include “Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51 years old, a judge on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; Justice Leondra Kruger, 45, a justice on the California Supreme Court; Judge Julianna Michelle Childs, 55, a federal judge in South Carolina who has been nominated by Mr. Biden to the D.C. Circuit appeals court; Judge Candace Rae Jackson-Akiwumi, who joined the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago months ago; and Judge Eunice Cheryl Lee, who has served on a federal appeals court in New York since last year.”
As expected, Democrats and Republicans in Congress have shared different reactions and expectations to the news.
“Every single one of President Biden’s judicial nominees have been positively supported by all 50 Democrats in the Senate,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono (D., Hawaii) according to The Wall Street Journal. “I expect that to continue, particularly for a Supreme Court nominee.”
“I’m fearful that the president is going to nominate a left-wing ideologue,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) on Fox News according to The Wall Street Journal.
However, since this nominee will not tip the balance of the Supreme Court, it is expected that the confirmation process will not be as polemical as it was when Justice Amy Coney Barret was appointed in 2020. Currently, the court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
President Biden hopes to announce his nominee for the Supreme Court by the end of the month.
