SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 15 February 2025, Saturday |

Biden to announce Ketanji Brown Jackson as historic U.S. Supreme Court pick

According to two individuals familiar with the process, President Joe Biden intends to nominate Ketanji Brown Jackson, a federal appellate judge, to become the first Black woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court on Friday.

The announcement of Jackson, which is likely to take place at the White House, will set the setting for a confirmation struggle in the Senate, which is currently split. Because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the date of Biden’s statement has been in flux.

Biden has chosen Jackson, 51, for a lifetime appointment to the nation’s highest court to replace retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, the court’s oldest member at 83. Only two of the 115 persons who have served on the Supreme Court have been Black, and both were men.

If approved by the Senate, Jackson will be the sixth woman to serve on the Supreme Court, which now has three female justices. She would join the liberal caucus on a court that is becoming more forceful, with a 6-3 conservative majority that includes three justices nominated by Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump.

Other contenders for the nomination were J. Michelle Childs, a district court judge in South Carolina and Leondra Kruger, a justice on the California Supreme Court.

The Senate voted 53-44 last year to confirm Jackson after Biden nominated her to the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, with three Republican senators backing her. At Jackson’s confirmation hearing last year, Republicans questioned her on whether race plays a role in her approach to deciding cases. She said it did not. The Senate previously confirmed her as a federal district judge, a job she held for eight years.

Jackson, who was raised in Miami and attended Harvard Law School, has a varied legal resume including earlier in her career representing criminal defendants who could not afford a lawyer. She was part of a three-judge panel that ruled in December against Republican former President Donald Trump’s bid to prevent White House records from being handed over to a congressional panel investigating last year’s Capitol attack.

Democrats are eager to move forward with the confirmation process while they control the Senate. Breyer, who has served since 1994, announced in January his intention to step down when the court’s completes its current term, likely by the end of June.

While Biden’s appointee will not change the court’s ideological balance – Jackson would be replacing a fellow liberal – her addition does enable Biden to refresh its liberal wing with a much younger jurist who could serve for decades, just as Trump’s three relatively young appointees are in a position to do.

The nomination also gives Biden a chance to shore up political support among women, minorities and liberals ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections in which Democrats are fighting to retain control of both chambers of Congress. Biden’s strength among suburban women, seen as a key reason for his victory over Trump, has eroded since taking office last year, worrying his political aides.

CONFIRMATION PROCESS

The Senate confirmation process includes hearings before the Judiciary Committee, whose chairman is Democrat Dick Durbin and whose top Republican is Chuck Grassley. Democrats control the evenly split 100-member Senate because of the ability of Vice President Kamala Harris to break a tie. Biden made history in 2020 when he made Harris the first Black vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket.

Illustrating the precarious nature of the Democrats’ control of the Senate, they currently lack a working majority after Democratic Senator Ben Ray Lujan had a stroke. He is expected to recover in time to vote on the nomination.

Because of a rules change spearheaded by Republicans to ease the confirmation of Trump’s first nominee Neil Gorsuch in 2017 amid Democratic opposition, only a simple Senate majority vote is needed to confirm Biden’s pick.

Democrats have said they plan to move Biden’s nomination on a quick timetable, similar to the single month that Republicans used for Trump’s third appointee Justice Amy Coney Barrett in 2020.

The White House has signaled it will fight back vigorously against Republican attempts to discredit the nominee. Some Republicans have accused Biden of discrimination for pledging to name a Black woman to the post without considering any men or non-Black women. Biden said on January a Black woman serving on the Supreme Court was long overdue.

The Supreme Court continues to play an integral role in American life and has moved rightward thanks to Trump’s three appointees. It is due to rule in the coming months in cases that could curb abortion rights and expand gun rights. In its term beginning next October the court is due to hear cases concerning race issues that could end affirmative action policies used by colleges and universities to increase the number of Black and Hispanic students.

    Source:
  • Reuters