President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that he intends to nominate a Black woman to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer by the end of February, a historic first that he called “long overdue.” Breyer is the first African-American to serve on the court.
The president met with Justice Stephen Breyer, whom he has known since the 1970s, at the White House after the 83-year-old justice formally announced his retirement in a letter to President Barack Obama.
Breyer stated in his letter that he intends to step down at the end of the court’s current term, which is typically at the end of June, assuming that his successor has been confirmed by the United States Senate.
As part of his campaign for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination, Biden noted that he promised during the campaign to name a Black woman to a lifetime appointment to a position on the Supreme Court and that he intended to follow through on that promise.
Biden was elected vice president in 2008 and was elected president in 2012.
“Our procedure is going to be extremely thorough. The nominee will be selected in accordance with Justice Breyer’s legacy of excellence and decency: “In his remarks, Biden described the selection of a Supreme Court justice as “one of the most serious constitutional responsibilities” of the president.
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“The only decision I’ve made while researching candidates’ backgrounds and writings is that the person I nominate will have extraordinary qualifications, character, experience, and integrity –
as well as the distinction of being the first Black woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court in history. It is, in my opinion, long overdue “Biden made the statement.
Potential nominees include Ketanji Brown Jackson, a former Breyer law clerk who was confirmed by the Senate last June to serve on an influential U.S. appellate court, and Leondra Kruger, a California Supreme Court justice who currently serves on the state’s highest court.
Michelle Childs, a federal district court judge in South Carolina whom Biden has already nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Washington, is another potential contender.
According to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Vice President Joe Biden believes that being a sitting judge is not a requirement for his nominee and that whether or not a candidate can garner Republican support is not a factor in his decision.
Following the selection of his nominee, Biden stated that he expects the Senate, which his fellow Democrats control by a razor-thin margin, to “move promptly.”
It is possible for Democrats to confirm a Supreme Court nominee without the support of a single Republican senator because Republicans changed Senate rules in 2017 to no longer require 60 votes out of 100 senators to allow Supreme Court nominations to move forward.
While Breyer’s retirement after 27 years on the bench provides Biden with his first opportunity to fill a vacancy on the nine-member court, it will have no effect on the court’s ideological balance.
The court’s conservative majority, which has a 6-3 vote, has demonstrated a growing willingness to reshape the law on controversial issues such as abortion and gun rights. During his single four-year term in office, Biden’s Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, appointed three Supreme Court justices.
The court’s oldest justice, Stephen Breyer, frequently found himself in dissent on a court that has shifted ever more to the right. On the White House lawn, he stressed the importance of a diverse nation such as the United States resolving its deep divisions by adhering to the rule of law in order to move forward.
With a copy of the Constitution from the 18th century in his hand, Breyer said, “People have come to accept this Constitution and they have come to accept the importance of the rule of law.” Breyer was speaking from the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States.
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THE WHITE HOUSE IS COMMUNICATING WITH CANDIDATES
According to a source familiar with the situation, White House officials expect to begin reaching out to and potentially meeting with candidates as early as next week. Biden is expected to collaborate with a group of no more than ten people.
According to a source familiar with the plans, Senate Democrats hope to confirm Biden’s nominee in a timeframe similar to the one-month process that the chamber’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, used in 2020 to confirm Trump’s third nominee, Amy Coney Barrett.
Republicans are attempting to retake control of the Senate in the upcoming congressional elections on November 8, underscoring the importance of moving quickly from the standpoint of Democrats. If McConnell’s party regains control of the Senate, he has stated that he will veto any Biden nominations to the court if he does so.
McConnell issued the following statement: “There should be no way for the president to delegate this important decision to the radical left. Americans deserve a nominee who has exhibited deep respect for the written text of our laws and the text of the United States Constitution.”
It was a shortlist prepared with the input of outside conservative legal activists associated with the Federalist Society that resulted in Trump’s three conservative appointees, whom McConnell was successful in getting confirmed by the Senate.
According to Biden, the nation’s gratitude to Breyer for his “remarkable career in public service” is being expressed, and he cited previous rulings that the justice had authored that upheld abortion and voting rights as well as environmental and religious liberty.
“Today is a bittersweet day for me,” President Joe Biden said. He is, in my opinion, an example of a model public servant during a time of great division in this country.”