Most Americans are in favor of President Joe Biden nominating a Black woman for the Supreme Court after Associate Justice Stephen Breyer announced that he would retire.
Justice Breyer is the most senior member of the Court’s liberal wing.
The Economist/YouGov survey revealed more than two-to-one support for the president’s commitment to choosing a Black woman, according to Newsweek
Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) joked that the nominee would be a “beneficiary” of affirmative action.
According to the principal, Biden is expected to name his nominee by the end of February.
A late-Thursday poll asked respondents whether they favored or opposed the nomination of a Black woman to the nation’s highest court.
Of the respondents, 33 percent “strongly support” this decision, while 20 percent said they “somewhat support” it (among a total of 53 percent).
Twenty-two percent were unsure of their position.
Over the course of the survey, approximately 1,500 U.S. adult citizens were surveyed and the margin of error was approximately +/-3 percent.
YouGov discovered broad support for racial and gender diversity in the Supreme Court, with 41 percent of respondents suggesting it is extremely important, and 25 percent suggesting it is somewhat important.
Twenty-one percent thought racial diversity was not important, and 12 percent said it was not very important.
On the other hand, the answer was similar when it came to gender diversity on the Court, with 35 percent believing it to be very important and 27 percent believing it to be somewhat important. 25 percent of those surveyed said it wasn’t important, while 13 percent said it wasn’t very important.
Supreme Court justices are mostly white men and there has never been a Black woman on the Court.
Former Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court, serving from 1987 to 2006.
Nonetheless, the late Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall was the first Black justice to serve on the Court from 1967 to 1991.
According to the Economist/YouGov poll, ideological diversity on the Supreme Court was also overwhelmingly regarded as important by 34 percent, with 34 percent saying it was somewhat important.
Only 18 percent of respondents said ideological diversity wasn’t important, and 13 percent didn’t think it was important at all.
The Supreme Court currently has a conservative majority of 6-3. If President Biden nominates someone, it is likely that the current balanced will be maintained once she is confirmed.
There is much speculation about who Biden will select, including Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, or Associate Justice Leondra Kruger of the Supreme Court of California and possibly U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs among other strong contenders.