Lawmakers weigh in on Biden's possible Supreme Court nominees

WASHINGTON — The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sunday defended President Joe Biden’s pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who leads the panel that will vet Biden’s nominee, addressed Republican critics who have questioned Biden’s pledge after longtime liberal Justice Stephen Breyer announced last week his plans to retire. Durbin told ABC’s "This Week" that past GOP presidents have also announced their intent to nominate female jurists for the nation’s highest bench.

"It was Ronald Reagan who announced that he was going to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court, and he did, Sandra Day O’Connor," Durbin said. "It was Donald Trump who announced that he was going to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a woman nominee as well. So this is not the first time that a president has signaled what they're looking for in a nominee."

As a presidential candidate, Biden promised if elected he would nominate the court’s first Black female justice, but some Republican lawmakers in the past week have criticized the pledge. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) last Friday said the nominee would be considered the "beneficiary" of affirmative action, and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley tweeted that Biden should not use "a race/gender litmus test."

Durbin pushed back against those criticisms, saying whoever emerges as Biden’s nominee "if they have achieved the level of success in the practice of law and jurisprudence, they've done it against great odds."

"They're extraordinary people, usually the first of anything in the United States turns out to be extraordinary in their background," Durbin said of the potential nominees. "They’re all going to face the same close scrutiny. This is a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land, and I just hope that those who are critical of the president's selection aren't doing it for personal reasons."

The shortlist of potential nominees currently being floated includes U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, California Supreme Court Judge Leondra Kruger and U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs. Biden, last week, said he will name a replacement by the end of February.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), appearing on CBS’ "Face the Nation," offered his endorsement of Childs, a native of his home state, and also pushed back on Wicker’s accusation that selecting a Black female nominee amounted to affirmative action.

"Put me in the camp of making sure the court and other institutions look like America," Graham said. "You know, we make a real effort as Republicans to recruit women and people of color to make the party look more like America. Affirmative action is picking somebody not as well qualified for past wrongs."

Graham, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, noted that "In the history of our country, we've only had five women serve and two African American men," on the Supreme Court, "so let's make the court more like America, but qualifications have to be the biggest consideration."

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), appearing on ABC’s "This Week" after Durbin, said she is "open to whomever" Biden decides to nominate, but she criticized the president for announcing his intention ahead of time, calling it "clumsy at best."

"I would welcome the appointment of a Black female to the court," Collins said. "I believe that diversity benefits the Supreme Court."