Days after President Biden was sworn in last year, one of his top congressional allies visited the White House with the name of a judge ...
Days after President Biden was sworn in last year, one of his top congressional allies visited the White House with the name of a judge he says should be appointed to the court. supreme.
The ally, Rep. James E. Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina, told Vice President Kamala Harris and White House attorney Dana Remus that whenever an opening emerges on the field , Mr. Biden is expected to appoint a little-known federal judge in his home state: J. Michelle Childs.
Mr. Clyburn, who helped Mr. Biden revive his candidacy with a crucial primary victory in South Carolina nearly two years ago, argued that Judge Childs would not only satisfy Mr. Biden to appoint a black woman to the court, but that the judge was particularly attractive because she came from a working-class background — another underrepresented group among federal judges.
“One of the things that we have to be very, very careful about as Democrats is being painted with this elitist paintbrush,” Mr Clyburn told the New York Times last year for an article that revealed how he pushed her to court.
He added: “When people talk about diversity they always look at race and ethnicity – I look beyond that to the diversity of experiences.”
As Mr. Biden weighs who to appoint to fill the seat of Justice Stephen G. Breyer, Justice Childs is considered a potential candidate – albeit an outsider – alongside two other possibilities: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Judge Leondra R. Kruger of the Supreme Court of California.
Judge Jackson and Judge Kruger attended Ivy League law schools, unlike Judge Childs, who attended the University of South Carolina.
The president has already decided to promote Justice Childs: He said in December that he would appoint her to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a frequent gathering place for potential Supreme Court justices. . The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing for her DC Circuit confirmation for next Tuesday, a process that could draw more attention to her and give her a chance to impress the White House.
Mr Clyburn, whose endorsement of Mr Biden at a low point in his race for the Democratic Party nomination helped him win South Carolina and propel him to the presidency, is expected to push the White House into the next few days to nominate Judge Childs.
“Not just for our party, but for the justice system, it’s important to have someone with lived experience,” Mr Clyburn told The Times last year.
Judge Childs’ mother moved her from Michigan to South Carolina after her father died as a child. His mother worked for telephone companies. Judge Childs attended the University of South Florida as an undergraduate on a scholarship. She then began the ascent from the bottom of the legal world to the federal bench. In 1992, she became the first female law partner at a top South Carolina firm. She later served as a state judge before President Barack Obama appointed her in 2010 as a district court judge.
In one of his most publicized cases, Judge Childs struck down a South Carolina rule in the 2020 election that would have required a witness to sign mail-in ballots, a move intended to make voting more onerous, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.
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