The first black woman to reach the US Supreme Court must be around 50 years old, have experience in Federal Justice and support even among some Republicans, indicate the bets that circulate among politicians and in the American press.
Last week, President Joe Biden reinforced his pledge to nominate someone with that profile, saying “too long has passed” without the court having a black female judge. The nominee will replace Stephen Breyer, 83, who announced his retirement for the end of this court term in June. The name should be released by the end of February.
Whatever the new magistrate, the 6-3 conservative majority on the collegiate will remain. With the change, however, one of the progressive names will be much younger than Breyer, in theory guaranteeing a position for this bias for a long time — the vacancy is for life.
The Supreme Court has been in the spotlight in the US for having recently declared defeats to Biden’s plans and for setting, for the next few months, issues of great impact. Among them are the review of the right to abortion – there are indications that the court may change the current understanding – and the adoption of affirmative action to encourage the access of blacks and other minorities to universities.
The court is now made up of six men and three women, and the betting pools for Biden’s nomination involve at least 13 names, but three have been cited the most: Julianna Michelle Childs, 55, federal judge from South Carolina, Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, a judge on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and Leondra Kruger, 45, a judge on the California Supreme Court.
Of them, Childs stood out for being the only one whose consideration for the position was confirmed by the White House. She had already been nominated by Biden for a position on the DC Court of Appeals, but the Senate review process was delayed precisely by the possibility open in the Supreme Court.
The magistrate has also received public support. Jim Clyburn, a South Carolina deputy who is a member of the House Democratic Party command, has defended the nomination since last year — wings of the party had been trying to convince Breyer to retire, with the hope that the nomination of a new progressive justice in the first half of Biden’s term to have approval facilitated with the majority that the government has today in the Senate, threatened in the legislative elections in November.
Last Sunday (30), Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, also from South Carolina, was another to endorse Childs. “I can’t think of a better person for President Biden to consider for the Supreme Court. She has broad support in our state, is considered an impartial and highly gifted jurist”, praised the congressman in an interview with CBS.
Childs was born in Detroit in 1966, the daughter of a police officer who died on the job when she was a teenager. After that, her mother, who was a manager at a telephone company, decided to move to Columbia, South Carolina, to escape the violence.
The magistrate studied at the universities of South Florida and South Carolina and graduated in law in 1991. She had a career as a labor lawyer until entering the public service, in 2000, with director positions at the South Carolina Department of Labor. In 2006, she was elected state judge in Columbia—many local court positions in the US are defined by popular vote. Three years later, she was appointed a federal judge in the state by then-President Barack Obama.
In office, Childs ruled on the validity of a marriage between two women that had been signed in Washington, a decision that cemented the right to same-sex unions in South Carolina, where there were questions even after a Supreme Court decision guaranteed it. .
In another case, in 2020, she decided that voters in the state would not need to sign the voting envelope by mail along with a witness, because of risks linked to Covid-19 and because she considered that the requirement made it difficult to access the vote. The decision was eventually overturned in the Supreme Court.
In another recent decision, it denied a request to prevent a company from requiring vaccination of its employees. It also ruled against a claim for compensation from an energy company, which would increase the electricity bill of 700,000 people, and ordered the federal government to remove a stockpile of plutonium that could contaminate the environment.
Another name on the rise for the vacancy in the highest instance of Justice is Kentanji Brown Jackson, appointed by Obama in 2013 to the District Court of the District of Columbia, where he analyzed cases involving acts of the Presidency. In office, she blocked an attempt by then-President Donald Trump to expand the deportation of immigrants without hearing them at hearings, and blocked three of his executive orders to limit federal workers’ rights, such as union membership.
Brown was also part of the three-judge panel that gave the go-ahead for Congress to gain access to White House records relating to the January 6, 2021, invasion of the Capitol. The Supreme Court later upheld the decision.
Others of his decisions were favorable to the republican, such as when authorizing the waiver of the environmental impact study in the construction of the wall on the border with Mexico.
On reproductive rights issues, Jackson ruled against an attempt by the Trump administration to cut funding for a teen pregnancy prevention program and, as a lawyer, provided legal support to help maintain a Massachusetts state ban on anti-abortion activists embarrassing women. seeking medical attention.
In June 2021, the magistrate was appointed by Biden to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The promotion passed the Senate 53-44, with three votes from Republicans, in a sign that it could also count on opposition support.
Brown was born in Washington in 1970, the daughter of a lawyer and a school principal. She grew up in Miami, excelling in debate and oratory tournaments, and studied law at Harvard, where she was deputy editor of the Harvard Law Review. After graduating, she was an assistant to a few judges, including Breyer.
In the 2000s, she alternated periods as a lawyer and public defender. In 2009, she was appointed by Obama to the vice presidency of the body responsible for setting the basis for federal sentences. During her tenure, the department recommended reducing penalties for crimes related to drug possession.
The third name among the most quoted is Leondra Kruger. Despite being the youngest on the list, at 45, she is also highly experienced and has served as a California Supreme Court Justice for seven years.
Born in Glendale, California, Kruger is the daughter of two pediatricians. Her father is of eastern European Jewish descent, and her mother was born in Jamaica. The magistrate attended Harvard and Yale, where she was the first black editor of the Yale Law Journal. Like Jackson, she worked as an assistant to justices — including John Stevens, then on the Supreme Court, between 2003 and 2004.
From 2007 to 2013, Kruger was an assistant to the US Solicitor General, responsible for representing the US government in lawsuits. She held office during the terms of Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Obama, and represented the chief before the Supreme Court in at least 12 cases.
She was appointed to the highest instance of state justice in 2014, at age 38, by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown. His performance in court is classified as moderate, being more progressive in civil cases and more conservative in criminal matters.
In two cases, it ordered companies to pay compensation for environmental damage. In terms of immigration, it authorized a Canadian citizen to withdraw his guilty plea for drug possession so as to avoid deportation. And, in labor cases, it ruled in favor of demands from employees asking for salary and benefit increases. She even turned down an appeal against the so-called Proposition 22, which classified app drivers as service providers, not employees of companies like Uber.
In the California court of appeals, Kruger had to deal with several requests for a death penalty review. She upheld the conviction on several occasions, and reversed the sentence in at least three cases, because of procedural flaws, such as errors in jury selection.
Biden’s nomination will need to be approved by the Senate by a simple majority. The Democrats now have 50 votes (out of a total of 100), plus Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaker. The evaluation process should take around a month. That way, the new nominee could be sworn in before the midterm elections, in which Democrats risk losing narrow majorities in the House and Senate.
Biden’s nomination of a black woman was seen as a nod to this electorate, which gave a good vote to Democrats in 2020, but which today has leaders criticizing him. Last month, for example, the president went to Georgia to stage a rally advocating changes to facilitate access to the vote, but the event was boycotted by some black leaders, who called for more action and less speech.
“The Supreme Court nominations have the potential to energize both Republican and Democrat voters. If Roe v Wade [decisão que liberou o aborto] is repealed, it will certainly motivate Democrats to act, although there is some ambivalence in some party members about the issue,” said Brad Jones, a senior fellow at the Pew Research Center.
This Tuesday (1st), Biden confirmed the choice of former Senator Doug Jones to act as guide for the nomination to the court. The president also met with key lawmakers on the nomination process, including the heads of the Judiciary Committee and House GOP leader Mitch McConnell — who last week urged the president “not to outsource the nomination to the radical left.” “.
If the Democrat keeps his word, the new judge will be only the third black person to be nominated for the Supreme Court in 232 years. The first was Thurgood Marshall, nominated by Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1967 – he retired in 1991 and died in 1993. The second is Clarence Thomas, in office since 1991, when he was nominated by Republican George Bush.
Among women, the first to reach the post was Sandra O’Connor, in 1981, nominated by Republican President Ronald Reagan. Since then, four others have passed through the court.
Black female judges being considered for the US Supreme Court
(in alphabetic order)
- Anita Earls
North Carolina Supreme Court Judge
- Arianna J. Freeman
Civil rights attorney, Biden Nominee to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals (serving New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania), awaits Senate confirmation.
- Candace Jackson-Akiwumi
Federal Judge for the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals (Serves Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin)
- Eunice Lee
Federal Judge, 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals (Serves New York, Connecticut, and Vermont)
- Holly A. Thomas
9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge (Serves California, Arizona and Alaska)
- Julianna Michelle Childs
South Carolina Federal Judge
- Kentanj Brown Jackson
Judge at the District of Columbia Court of Appeals
- Leondra Kruger
California Supreme Court Judge
- Melissa Murray
Professor of Law at New York University
- Nancy G. Abudu
Civil rights lawyer. Biden nominee to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (Florida, Georgia and Alabama), awaits Senate confirmation
- Sherrilyn Ifill
Civil rights attorney and director at the NAACP, one of the leading anti-racism organizations in the US
- Tiffany P. Cunningham
Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which mainly judges matters related to patents and foreign trade
- Wilhelmina Wright
Federal Judge in Minnesota
Source: Folha
