Posted on May 8, 2020

Biden Pledged to Put a Black Woman on the Supreme Court. Here’s What He Might Have to Do.

Sahil Kapur, NBC News, May 6, 2020

Joe Biden has promised that if elected president, he’d put the first black woman on the Supreme Court. To make good on that pledge, he’d have to look in some atypical places.

Supreme Court justices are usually elevated from a federal appeals court. Eleven of the last 12 confirmed justices were plucked from an appellate court — the exception was Elena Kagan, who was the U.S. solicitor general, a position so embedded with the institution it has been nicknamed “the tenth justice.”

Only five black women are now on U.S. appeals courts, and all of them will be 68 or older this year, according to data compiled by NBC News from the Federal Judicial Center.

Biden would face pressure to pick someone younger who could secure the seat for a generation or more. None of the last seven confirmed justices were older than 55 when nominated.

There are only nine Democratic-appointed black women on the federal bench younger than 55 this year. All are district court judges picked by President Barack Obama. The youngest is Leslie Abrams Gardner, 45, the sister of Biden vice presidential contender Stacey Abrams. Another name that stands out is Ketanji Brown Jackson, 49, a judge in Washington who was on Obama’s Supreme Court shortlist in 2016.

The numbers reveal the limited presence that black women have in the federal judiciary even as they form a constituency so important to the Democratic Party that it prompted the party’s likely nominee to make such an unprecedented pledge. African American women comprise just 5 percent of the federal judiciary — a share that was even smaller before Obama’s presidency.

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Biden’s pledge also shines a light on the stakes in the 2020 election for the high court, where conservatives hold a 5 to 4 advantage. The future of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, and Stephen Breyer, 81, both Democratic appointees, looms large over the future of big issues such as abortion rights and civil rights. The next oldest justices are GOP-picked Clarence Thomas, 71, and Samuel Alito, 70.

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Overall, there are 48 women who are of African American descent and currently sitting federal judges, but Biden’s realistic options on the bench would be fewer. Only 11 will be younger than 55 on Election Day — two were appointed by Republicans and are ideologically out of sync with progressives.

Demand Justice has floated outside-the-box prospects on its shortlist, including 43-year-old California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger; civil rights lawyer, advocate and author Michelle Alexander; NAACP Legal Defense Fund counsel Sherrilyn Ifill; and NYU law professor Melissa Murray.

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Some Democrats speculate that Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Abrams, a former Georgia gubernatorial candidate — both lawyers — will find their way on to Biden’s Supreme Court shortlist if they are passed over for vice president.

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