Congressman Jim Clyburn hopes the nomination and confirmation of the first Black justice to the Supreme Court of the United States will help the country progress toward fulfilling goals of equality and justice under the law.
After the formal retirement announcement Thursday by Justice Stephen Breyer, Biden repeated a promise made at Clyburn’s urging during the 2020 campaign: to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.
Clyburn, during a press briefing Thursday, underscored his support for U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs, of South Carolina, to fill the vacancy upon Breyer’s departure in late spring. Biden is expected to announce his pick by the end of February.
Childs, a Detroit native who moved to Columbia as a child and attended University of South Carolina School of Law, has served as a District Court judge for a decade. In December, President Joe Biden nominated her to serve as a federal appellate judge in Washington, D.C., a frequent training ground for future justices on the high court.
Clyburn said that he pushed Childs’ elevation to the D.C. circuit shortly after the 2020 election because he thought she was “Supreme Court material.” The congressman said he had not spoken to President Biden about Childs as a potential pick for the Court.
Childs is among three judges reported Thursday to be on the president’s radar, according to The New York Times. The others: U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who sits on the D.C. circuit, and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger.
Clyburn, who serves as the majority whip in the U.S. House, said he had nothing against the other women rumored to be on the president’s shortlist, but pointed to Childs’ non-Ivy League background as way to steer the country away from becoming “an elite society.”
“We’ve got to recognize that people come from all walks of life, have all kinds of backgrounds and experiences,” he said. “And we ought not dismiss anybody because of that.”
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Clyburn summarily dismissed Republican critics who have called Biden’s pledge “reverse discrimination.”
“What is it, for a country to be this old, as old as we are, that we have never, ever had a Black woman even discussed to serve on the Supreme Court? That’s not discrimination? What is it?” Clyburn said.
Instead, Clyburn said the appointment could be a step forward.
“I think that it’s very, very important for us to see this day as another step towards making this country a more perfect union,” he said. “I think that those people who find fault with this nomination will not be cursing the darkness that they see, but will do something to light a candle.”
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