According to someone familiar with the matter the White House confirmed Tuesday that President Joe Biden had interviewed at least three Supreme Court candidates. The White House also reiterated Tuesday that he is on track to make a final decision by Monday.
Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, said that Biden hasn’t made a decision about who to nominate. According to a source familiar with the matter, the president interviewed judges Leondra Kruger and J. Michelle Childs, as well as Ketanji Brown Jackson and J. Michelle Childs. According to a second source, Biden interviewed at least three candidates for this post. They spoke anonymously to discuss the internal process.
Biden pledged to nominate the first Black woman judge to the high court before the end of the month in order to fill the vacancy created by Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement. The president has not yet confirmed whether additional candidates were interviewed.
Psaki refused to answer whether Biden had conducted interviews, but maintained that the president was on track to make the selection, despite increasing tensions between Russia & Ukraine.
President Barack Obama nominated Jackson to serve as a judge in the district court. Biden elevated Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit. She was also a law clerk at Breyer in the early stages of her career.
Childs, a South Carolina federal judge, was nominated, but she has not been confirmed to the same circuit court. Because she is a favourite among high-profile lawmakers like Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), her name has been recalled.
Kruger is a Harvard and Yale law student who was previously a Supreme Court clerk. Kruger has argued over a dozen cases in front of the justices before becoming a judge on the California Supreme Court.
Senator Republican leader Mitch McConnell signals he wants fair fight over Biden’s pick, disengaging those in his GOP ranks who want to insert a wider debate about race into the confirmation process.
McConnell spoke Tuesday in Kentucky and distanced himself from GOP senators who had criticized Biden’s declaration of his intention to nominate Black women.
“I heard some people saying that they thought it was inappropriate that the president announced that he would be adding an African American woman to the court. McConnell stated that he didn’t think it was inappropriate.
To remind people of the promises made by Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump to have women on the court, the GOP leader used history. Reagan appointed Sandra Day O’Connor to be the first female justice. Trump selected Amy Coney Barrett as replacement for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. McConnell stated, “I’m certainly not complaining about it.”
The Republicans cannot stop Biden’s selection in the 50-50 Senate, where Democrats hold the majority and Vice President Kamala Harris has cast the tiebreaking vote. They want the confirmation process to be free from political drama, so that they can continue challenging President Biden on their favorite topics and the administration’s handling COVID-19.
Republicans believe that one way to demonstrate how they will govern is to draw a comparison between the court battle and the controversy surrounding Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation. This was when Trump’s nominee was accused of sexual assault. He denied the allegations. Republicans feel that Senate Democrats suffered with voters following those highly politicized confirmation hearings.
McConnell stated that “this confirmation will not happen like that.” McConnell stated that he expected a confirmation process Americans could be proud of. “We believe that a Supreme Court nominee should be treated with respect, thoroughly vetted, and then voted on.”