With the retirement of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, President Biden will be nominating a new justice, one that he pledged during his 2020 election campaign will be a black woman. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Biden’s nominee will be the first African American woman to serve on the nation’s highest court.
Some of the reported frontrunners that could be selected by Biden include: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, who was on former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court shortlist in 2016; California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, a former deputy solicitor general of the U.S. and Judge J. Michelle Childs of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, who has been championed by Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and nominated for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Predictably, some Republican politicians and right-wing commentators have criticized Biden for his stated goal of selecting a highly qualified black woman to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. This criticism from the right was notably absent when then-Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan and former President Donald Trump both pledged to select women nominees to fill future high court vacancies. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Marge Baker, executive vice president for policy and program with People For the American Way, who talks about the historic nature of President Biden’s pledge to diversify the Supreme Court.
MARGE BAKER: We are on our way to confirming an extraordinarily qualified black woman to serve as a justice Supreme Court, one who has a demonstrated commitment to civil and human rights and will really move the court in a historic direction. It could not be more exciting. It is long overdue, and we’re just we’re just really excited for what this could mean for the court for justice, not just now, but justice going forward for generations now.
SCOTT HARRIS: The pledge to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court has triggered the racism and reflexive white supremacist worldview of some in the Republican Party. Right-wing Fox News commentators expressed disbelief that a well-qualified black woman jurist could be found. Really despicably, we have Republican Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi very predictably diminishing any nominee Biden would pick as a product of affirmative action. I wonder if you’d talk about the response we see from Republicans and right-wing commentators.
MARGE BAKER: Of the 114 justices on the Supreme Court, 108 were white men. Did anybody raise this issue when a white man was nominated that somehow there was undue preference when in fact there was? It’s only now in 2022 that we are seeing the nomination of a black woman to sit on the Supreme Court. When Amy Coney Barrett, who was the last Trump nominee to be confirmed at a very rapid, rapid pace, was nominated, Trump said that he was going to nominate a woman to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat. You didn’t hear Sen. Wicker out there, you know, challenging that. It’s just a bogus argument, really. And it’s important to understand that that’s out there.
But the fact is that, as we were talking about, there is a deep pool of extraordinarily qualified talented women who have a demonstrated commitment to protecting civil and human rights. And it’s among that pool of women that President Biden is going to pick someone.
SCOTT HARRIS: I did want to ask you about what we can expect during a nomination hearing in the U.S. Senate. Can we expect the Democrats to be united, given all the problems we’ve seen in the Build Back Better bill and the voting rights bill that failed both of them? And of course, is it also equally predictable that we’re going to see Republicans in solid opposition, with maybe a few exceptions?
MARGE BAKER: You know, it’s a really good question. I think we should. Up until now, the Democratic caucus members of the Democratic caucus have hung together on all of Biden’s lower federal court nominees, so I’m not sure I would expect anything different. Obviously, each one is going to make their evaluation, but I think the past record suggests that the Democratic caucus will be there, and I don’t think that we should assume that we can’t get Republican votes. I should say I’m I’m hopeful.
SCOTT HARRIS: Obviously, this nominee from President Biden, if she succeeds here in the U.S. Senate, is not going to change the balance of the court. So as you look at the problem of the U.S. Supreme Court and its lopsided right-wing view, there’s been discussion of the need to expand the court or to impose term limits on the justices so we have a more representative Supreme Court. What’s the importance of reforming the Supreme Court?
MARGE BAKER: I think that is important, but I think we have to I think we have to walk and chew gum at the same time. The walking piece is we need this confirmation and we need this seat on the Supreme Court that is being vacated by Justice Breyer to be filled by a younger, progressive woman. And the fact that this will be the first black woman on the court is extremely important, and I think it’s a part of that is we have to stop the bleeding. So we have to make sure that this seat is is filled by a justice who really is committed and somebody who’s demonstrated their their commitment to civil and human rights and justice for all. So that’s the first piece.
Then then I think we we have to understand that whether it is rebalancing the current court, which will take a long time, or court reform, which also will take a long time, we have to keep building to creating a court that is there for all of us, not just for the powerful and not just for the wealthy.
And that means, frankly, one piece of that is making sure that we continue to turn out at the polls to make sure that we have a president to nominate such a nominee and a Senate that will confirm such a nominee going forward because this is not going to be the first vacancy, there’s going to be more and more and more. And we have to set ourselves up to make sure that we are filling existing vacancies as they occur with individuals who have that demonstrated commitment to protecting the rights of all of us.
And then we look at reform, and we at my organization have supported both the idea of term limits and also the idea of expanding the court. It’s something to pursue. But I think we can’t take our eyes off of the immediate battle for this to fill this vacancy and other vacancies that occur as we’re also striving for reform.
For more information on People for the American Way, visit PFAW.org.
