Photo taken on Jan. 13, 2022 shows the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., the United States. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)
Biden said that he'd nominate the person "with extraordinary qualifications, character experience and integrity."
by Matthew Rusling
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- A battle over U.S. President Joe Biden's upcoming pick to sit on the Supreme Court bench is simmering between Democrats and Republicans.
Last week, Biden reaffirmed his commitment to nominating an African American woman for the high court after Justice Stephen Breyer, one of the three liberal justices on the nine-member bench, announced that he will retire this summer.
"(Biden) shouldn't expect much if any GOP support. His choice likely is to be pretty liberal and Republicans will characterize her as outside the political mainstream and extreme in her viewpoints, regardless of who he chooses," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.
It is the job of a U.S. president to appoint justices to the nation's top court, and Biden promised while running for the White House to nominate an African American woman if elected, in a nod to a crucial voting bloc for the Democratic Party.
"African-Americans saved his candidacy during the nominating process and helped put him over the top in the general election, and this will be the way he rewards their support," West said. "In the end, I expect him to get his choice."
The commonly-circulated names are Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Associate Justice Leondra Kruger of the California Supreme Court, and Judge J. Michelle Childs of the U.S. District Court in South Carolina.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, warned Biden earlier this week not to outsource his Supreme Court choice to the "radical left" -- echoing a common refrain that the Democratic Party has been hijacked by progressives.
"Looking ahead -- the American people elected a Senate that is evenly split at 50-50. To the degree that President Biden received a mandate, it was to govern from the middle, steward our institutions, and unite America," McConnell said in a statement published Thursday.
"The American people deserve a nominee with demonstrated reverence for the written text of our laws and our Constitution," he added.
U.S. President Joe Biden arrives at the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States on Jan. 24, 2022. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)
Biden later said in a tweet that he'd nominate the person "with extraordinary qualifications, character experience and integrity."
According to Fox News, Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund, is also "among the names being circulated as a potential nominee."
Democrats hold a razor-thin margin in the Senate, the legislative body tasked with confirming Biden's Supreme Court pick. Biden will need to select a candidate who can safely garner 50 votes.
Democrats have suffered a number of harsh blows in recent months. Biden's approval rating stands at an all-time low, Americans are frustrated by rising inflation, and the Party's legislative cornerstone -- the Build Back Better Act -- has stalled in Congress. Democrats are badly in need of a victory to invigorate their base in the lead-up to November's mid-term elections.
Christopher Galdieri, an assistant professor at Saint Anselm College, told Xinhua that if the Senate Democrats hold together, there's not much Senate Republicans can do to block the nomination.
"I would expect an effort to turn the nominee, no matter who it is, into a figure of controversy, particularly since it's an election year," Galdieri said.
"But absent some sort of stunning development that the White House's vetting operation misses, I would expect the nominee to wind up confirmed (by the Senate)," he added.
In the eyes of Galdieri, Biden has "really taken diversifying the federal courts seriously in his lower court appointments, both in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, and professional background."
"I suspect he views this as in keeping with that effort. He also made nominating a black woman to the Court a campaign promise that he clearly intends to keep," the expert noted.
Brenda Scott, a waitress in her 20s, welcomed the possible election of a black woman as Supreme Court Justice, while Will Dalton, an office worker in his 40s, said he does not care what gender or race the nominee is, as long as the person is qualified. ■
