President Biden has personally completed interviews with three candidates for the Supreme Court vacancy: Ketanji Brown Jackson, Leondra Kruger and Michelle Childs, Fox News has learned.
White House officials are not commenting further, other than to say Biden will announce his pick before the end of the month in the next few days.
Justice Stephen Breyer announced he would be retiring at the end of the current term. Biden has promised to pick a Black woman, calling such a choice “long overdue.”
Biden has tapped former Democratic Alabama Sen. Doug Jones as the experienced “sherpa” to guide the confirmation process, which would include private meetings with senators and practice sessions known as “murder boards” to prepare the nominee for expected tough Senate committee questioning.
Office space has been set up at the adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building for Jones and other outside advisers. The nominee will also get a suite of offices to prepare for the confirmation.
Candidate Information:
First candidate, Ketanji Brown Jackson is an American attorney and jurist serving as a circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. From 2013 to 2021, she was a district judge on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
It is stated that Jackson has not given a body of appeals court opinion or expressed her philosophy. However, observing Jackson’s earlier rulings and stance, she tends to be a more liberal-leaning judge. This includes her previous opinions blocking Trump administration actions.
According to news media outlets, such as NBC News, Jackson fits well with the Democratic Party and the progressive movement’s agenda due to her relative youth, background as a public defender, and history of labor-friendly rulings.
Second candidate, Leondra Reid Kruger, is an American judge who is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California. A native of South Pasadena, California, she graduated from Harvard College and Yale Law School.
If she replaces Justice Stephen Breyer, she would also continue the tradition of the court’s “Jewish seat.”
On the court, Kruger has emerged as an incrementalist, stating that she views her role as, at least in part, “enhancing the predictability and stability of the law” to improve “public confidence and trust in the work of the courts.” She is sometimes considered one of the swing votes when the court is occasionally divided, and is seen as a moderate on the liberal-leaning seven-member court.
Last candidate, Julianna Michelle Childs (known professionally as J. Michelle Childs), is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, serving in that role since 2010. She previously served as a state circuit court judge based in Columbia, South Carolina.
Childs’ surprising ascent from district court judge to supreme court finalist can also be attributed to Jim Clyburn, the number 3 Democrat in the house who has been lobbying Biden to nominate Childs notwithstanding concerns over Childs’ conservative record as a judge and trial lawyer.
Labor rights groups have voiced their displeasure with Childs’ consideration for the U.S. Supreme Court given her private sector experience working at a law firm many considered to be an “anti-union” law firm.
Childs has made two decisions related to nuclear reactor facilities in South Carolina.
First, in August 2018, Childs refused to enjoin a state law that forced a state utility to cut its customers’ rates after the failed construction of two new nuclear reactors in Fairfield County.
Second, in December 2021, Childs refused to block a vaccine mandate for workers at a South Carolina nuclear facility. Childs ruled that the company did not have to continue employing someone who refused to get vaccinated.
