As news broke Wednesday of Justice Stephen Breyer’s plans to announce his retirement at the end of the Supreme Court’s current term, social media became much more active as thought leaders discussed President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to nominate the first Black woman to the highest court in the country.
Breyer, who is 83, was nominated to the court in 1994 by President Bill Clinton. And while his departure gives Biden the chance to nominate the first Black female justice, the court will still hold a Republican majority.
Breyer and Biden formally announced his retirement Thursday afternoon from the White House. During that press briefing, Biden said this was a bittersweet day for him as the two have known each other since the 1970s.
“We’re here to express the nation’s gratitude to Justice Stephen Breyer for his remarkable career of public service and his clear-eyed commitment to making our country’s laws work for its people,” Biden said, “Our gratitude extends to Justice Breyer’s family for being partners in his decades of public service.”
Breyer served on the Supreme Court for 28 years, and prior to that served for decades on the federal bench.
Biden addressed his task of nominating someone to replace Breyer, calling it one of the most serious constitutional responsibilities the president has. He noted he will be sure the nominee will carry on Breyer’s legacy of excellence and decency.
“While I’ve been studying candidates’ backgrounds and writings, I’ve made no decision, except one: The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity,” Biden said. “And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court.”
Throughout the Supreme Court’s history, only two Black people (both men) have served as justices: Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas.
Biden said he intends to nominate someone by the end of February and will ask the Senate to move promptly in confirming his nominee.
“It’s long overdue in my view,” Biden went on to say. “I made that commitment during my campaign for president, and I will keep that commitment. I will fully do what I said I would do.”
The Associated Press wrote its White House sources said Biden is focusing on three women right now: U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger.
Jackson is 51 and was appointed as a federal trial judge by President Barack Obama in 2013 and was just recently confirmed to the United States Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia circuit. She once clerked for Breyers and was formerly a public defender, making her a favorite among criminal justice reformers.
Childs, 48, has been a federal judge since 2010, and she faces a confirmation hearing next week for her nomination to the D.C. appeals court.
Kruger, 45, sits on the California Supreme Court and was previously a top Justice Department. She is considered by most to be a moderate incrementalist.
Several Black St. Louis leaders took to social media to express their opinions on who should be nominated, and they all agreed it needs to be a Black woman.
“I would love to see a Black woman who will insist on racial, environmental, social, disability, and economic justice named to the Supreme Court,” U.S. Rep. Cori Bush tweeted. “Identity is important, but it is not enough.”
Blake Strode, Executive Director of ArchCity Defenders echoed those thoughts.
“Yes, fill the seat with a Black woman. Hell, fill multiple seats with Black women,” Strode tweeted. “But more importantly—yes, *more*—fill the seat with someone who can hold a Black, queer, feminist analysis.”
He went on in another to clarify the criteria he laid out should “disqualify a few names being bandied about like they came out of Mitt Romney’s binder full of Black women.”
However, in true Josh Hawley fashion, the Missouri Attorney General criticized the left’s politics on Twitter upon hearing the news.
“Moment of truth for Joe Biden,” he wrote. “Will this deeply unpopular [and] divisive president finally reject the radical elements of his party and nominate someone who loves America and believes in the Constitution? Or will he continue to tear apart this country [with] a woke activist?”
Cora Faith Walker, chief policy officer for the St. Louis County Executive’s Office, called Hawley out on his tweet, deeming it a dog whistle— racist rhetoric coded or disguised to appear innocuous.
“My word! The dog whistles are DEAFENING,” she wrote in reply to Hawley. “Here’s a newsflash, Senator Fist Raiser: there are plenty of [B]lack women who love America and believe in the Constitution.”
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones then echoed Walker’s comments on Twitter.
“The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity. And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court.” – President Joe Biden
