A shortlist of possible replacements for Breuer on the Supreme Court

by Ariane de Vogue and Tierney Snead | CNN

In what will be one of the most important efforts of Joe Biden’s presidency, the retirement of Stephen Breuer sets the stage for a hugely important decision by the president.

Breyer’s seat may be the only one Biden fills on the Supreme Court, and it may not be one he fills at all — confirming the president’s choice for a replacement if Republicans retake the Senate. Is performed.

On the campaign trail, Biden vowed to put a black woman on the High Court in what would be a historic first. A short list of potential nominees was circulating to Washington well before Breyer’s retirement plans became public, and officials at the White House council office created files on the various candidates in anticipation of a potential vacancy. Now, those efforts will accelerate significantly and the president will meet face-to-face before announcing his selection.

The White House is filled with officials deeply familiar with the confirmation process, beginning with Biden himself — who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee — as well as White House Chief of Staff Ron Klein, who holds the White House Counsel’s Office and Working experience. Senate Judiciary Committee.

With Democrats having the lowest majority in the upper house, Biden must choose someone who can safely get 50 votes in the Senate (Vice President Kamala Harris could provide the tie-breaking vote if the Senate splits on the nomination). Goes). In addition to counting the votes, Biden will also have to keep an eye on the calendar. Senate Republicans are likely to retake the chamber in the midterm this year and have already indicated they would block a Biden candidate on the Supreme Court. It usually takes two to three months for the president to confirm his nominee after he has been nominated by the Senate. The most recent justice, however, was confirmed in only a month and a half, as Senate Republicans raced to approve Justice Amy Connie Barrett ahead of the 2020 election.

Given the recent disappointments given to progressives under the Biden administration—between Congress’s demise of the president’s Build Back Better proposal and his failure to find a way forward on voting rights legislation—Biden’s choice for the Supreme Court has cost him Given the opportunity to strengthen the democratic base. If he is confirmed, Biden would secure a much-needed victory for his administration.

Here are the potential nominees who have been on the short list of supervisors.

DC Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

Biden has already promoted Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson once, appointed last year to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which is considered the second most powerful federal court in the country. Prior to this, the 51-year-old judge served in federal district court in DC. Because of that appellate appointment, she has already gone through a vetting process that includes an interview with the president himself. Well, he clerked for Breuer and got degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law School. She also served as an assistant federal public defender, making her a prime example of Biden’s White House focus on appointing distinguished prosecutors and judges with backgrounds outside the Big Law box.

As a judge, Jackson has ruled on high-profile cases including the Don McGann Congressional Summons Trial (where, as a district court, he ordered a former Trump White House attorney to comply with House summons) ). As an appellate judge, she signed the recent Opinion Order of Disclosure of Trump White House documents being sought by a House January 6 committee — a matter Trump has now asked the Supreme Court to review. If he is confirmed in court while the judge was still considering the case, he will probably be asked to recuse himself.

California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger

Kruger, now 45, was the youngest person to be appointed to the Supreme Court of California when then-Gov. She was nominated by Jerry Brown in 2014.

Kruger is well acquainted with the Supreme Court, having served as a clerk for the late Justice John Paul Stevens and as an acting deputy solicitor general in the Obama administration. While in the office of Solicitor General, she argued 12 cases before the Supreme Court representing the government. In the Justice Department, he also earned the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the department’s highest award for employee performance, in 2013 and 2014.

In the California Supreme Court, she wrote a noteworthy opinion on the Fourth Amendment — holding that law enforcement could not search a woman’s purse without a warrant because she refused to provide a driver’s license — and to uphold California law. Law enforcement is required to collect DNA samples and fingerprints of all persons arrested or convicted of a felony.

Although he is well-liked among the alumni of the Solicitor General’s office, he has yet to receive the full scrutiny that other potential nominees have gone through.

South Carolina US District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs

Childs, a judge in the federal court in South Carolina, is said to be a major booster in House Majority Whip James Clyburn, a Biden aide who has voted to distribute South Carolina to the final candidate in the 2020 Democratic primary. helped in Just last month, Biden nominated Childs to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and the nomination is pending.

A graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, Childs does not have the Ivy League pedigree shared by eight of the nine judges. His cheerleaders tout his public-school education and other elements of his background as an advantage for Democrats, according to a 2021 New York Times report, and as a way to fight against claims that the party has been changing its makeup. It has become too elitist.

In addition to a decade spent in private practice, the 55-year-old served as a state court trial judge on the South Carolina circuit, as deputy director of the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, and as a commissioner. South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission.

Other names that float