The retirement of Justice Stephen G. Breyer will give President Biden a chance to make history, and to make good on his promise to put a Black woman on the Supreme Court, a campaign year pledge that helped revive his flagging campaign.Mr. Biden made the promise at a debate in February 2020, just days before facing his Democratic rivals in the South Carolina primary, where Black people make up a large portion of the party’s voters. At the time, his campaign was struggling amid losses in two of the early presidential contests.“I’m looking forward to making sure there’s a Black woman on the Supreme Court to make sure we in fact get everyone represented,” Mr. Biden said that night.The promise helped Mr. Biden secure the support of Representative James Clyburn, a veteran Black Democrat from South Carolina, just days ahead of the party’s contest in that state. Last year, Mr. Clyburn confirmed a report in the book “Peril,” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, that he had urged Mr. Biden to make the promise during the debate.“I have three daughters,” Mr. Clyburn told Bloomberg. “I think I would be less than a good dad if I did not say to the president-to-be, this is an issue that is simmering in the African-American community that Black women think they have as much right to sit on the Supreme Court as any other women, and up to that point none had been considered.”With Mr. Clyburn’s endorsement, Mr. Biden went on to win the South Carolina primary, proving the durability of his support among Black voters and setting in motion a string of victories on Super Tuesday a short time later.In the weeks and months that followed, Mr. Biden repeated the promise. And after becoming president, Mr. Biden made it clear that he intended to make good on the promise if he got the opportunity.Asked during a news briefing in March, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, confirmed that the president remained committed to the promise.“Of course, to nominate an African American woman to the Supreme Court,” she said. “Yes, absolutely.”Mr. Biden has not said who he will nominate. But speculation has focused on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, who graduated from Harvard Law School and served as a law clerk to Justice Breyer, and Justice Leondra R. Kruger of the California Supreme Court, who graduated from Yale Law School and served as a law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens.In a meeting with Mr. Biden in the Oval Office, Mr. Clyburn has pushed for Judge J. Michelle Childs of the Federal District Court in Columbia, S.C., a graduate of the University of South Carolina’s law school and a former law firm partner who also worked in state government.By: Michael D. Shear
Title: Biden made a campaign pledge to put a Black woman on the Supreme Court.
Sourced From: www.nytimes.com/2022/01/26/us/politics/biden-supreme-court-black-woman.html
Published Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2022 19:59:32 +0000
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