That timeline will give Mr. Biden several months to find a successor for Justice Breyer while being confident that he will stay on the court until the
That timeline will give Mr. Biden several months to find a successor for Justice Breyer while being confident that he will stay on the court until the new justice is confirmed by the Senate.
In the days ahead, Mr. Biden will be free to make good on the promise he made as a presidential candidate in 2020. Fighting for the Democratic nomination, he pledged to be the first president to select a Black woman for a life appointment to the court.
That decision of whom to nominate as a replacement for Justice Breyer, a liberal jurist, will not affect the ideological balance on the court, where conservatives hold a 6-to-3 majority. But Mr. Biden — who has said repeatedly that he views efforts to promote diversity as a big part of his legacy — is poised to make a historic and long-lasting imprint on what the court looks like.
In his remarks on Thursday, Mr. Biden said he would look broadly for advice from outside legal experts, senators and others. He made a point of saying that he would look to Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he called an “exceptional lawyer.” She is a former attorney general of California who served on the Judiciary Committee when she was in the Senate.
“I will listen carefully to all the advice I’m given, he said.
Still, speculation has already focused on three Black jurists seen as the most likely candidates. They are Ketanji Brown Jackson, a 51-year-old judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; Leondra R. Kruger, a 45-year-old justice on the California Supreme Court; and J. Michelle Childs, 55, a Federal District Court judge in South Carolina whom Mr. Biden recently nominated for a judgeship on a federal appeals court.
The president could still pick someone else, and he is not required to elevate someone who is already a judge, though that is by far the most common route to the Supreme Court. Some of Mr. Biden’s predecessors have picked politicians, lawyers or law professors.
But the president is not expected to stray from his pledge to ensure that his pick is a Black woman, and he emphasized that pledge on Thursday.
In his letter, Justice Breyer wrote that he appreciated the privilege of serving on the court for almost 28 years, saying “I have found the work challenging and meaningful. My relations with each of my colleagues have been warm and friendly.”
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