Senate Confirms Potential Supreme Court Pick Ketanji Brown Jackson. Here’s Who Else Could Be On Biden’s SCOTUS Shortlist.

Topline

The Senate confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit late Monday, elevating the judge to the nation’s top appeals court as she’s widely considered to be a top possibility for President Joe Biden’s first Supreme Court nominee — and here’s who else may be in the running:

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 28, 2021 in ... [+] Washington, DC.

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Key Facts

Biden has pledged to name the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, with Jackson and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra R. Kruger widely viewed as the primary contenders for the nomination.

Jackson previously served on the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. and has experience as a public defender and on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, while Kruger was a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice at the solicitor general’s office during George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s presidencies.

Other Black women that progressives have pushed as potential Supreme Court nominees include NAACP Legal Defense Fund President Sherrilyn Ifill, NYU Law professor Melissa Murray and U.S. District Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner, the sister of former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

Should Biden not name a Black woman as his first Supreme Court nominee, Asian American activists are also lobbying for the court’s first justice of Asian descent to be appointed to the bench, USA Today reports.

Potential Asian-American nominees could include Judge Sri Srinivasan, the chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Nguyen, both of whom were rumored to be on President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court shortlist.

Other reported Obama Supreme Court contenders that Biden could potentially name to the bench include 9th Circuit Judge Paul Watford and D.C. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett.

Big Number

53. That’s how many senators voted in favor of Jackson’s confirmation, suggesting the potential for a bipartisan confirmation vote if she gets named to the Supreme Court. The Republicans that voted in favor of her confirmation were Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Lindsay Graham (S.C.).

What We Don’t Know

When a Supreme Court vacancy will open up—and if Republicans will let Biden fill it. Democratic activists have been pressuring left-leaning Justice Stephen Breyer to retire while Democrats retain a slim majority in the Senate and could confirm Biden’s preferred nominee, something he so far has not signaled he has any plans to do. While the 2022 midterm elections will determine Senate control for the second half of Biden’s term, Democrats fear Republicans could take back the chamber sooner, given that Democrats’ razor-thin majority—50 seats plus Vice President Kamala Harris as a tie breaker—means that Republicans could regain control if just one Democratic senator were to have to unexpectedly step down. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested Monday that Republicans may not confirm a Biden Supreme Court nominee if they take back the Senate, telling conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that the Senate would not vote on a nominee should a vacancy become available in 2024 due to the impending presidential election. When asked if the GOP would let Biden fill a vacancy in 2023, McConnell responded, “Well, we’d have to wait and see what happens.”

Key Background

Biden has faced strong pressure from the left to diversify the judiciary and appoint judges from a wider range of backgrounds to the court system, after former President Donald Trump named a larger share of white judges than his predecessors. The president has so far followed through on that pledge for diversity, with the Washington Post noting the president has already named more women of color to federal courts in the past four months than Trump did in four years. Democratic activists have also been heavily pressuring the Biden Administration and Congress to significantly overhaul the Supreme Court to combat its 6-3 conservative tilt—including potentially by adding justices to the high court, a practice that Republicans have denounced as “court packing.” Biden has not committed to any structural reforms, but did convene a commission to look at potential reforms to the court, including adding justices or imposing term limits.

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