On Thursday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer officially announced his retirement at the White House. At the announcement, President Joe Biden reaffirmed his campaign promise to nominate a Black woman to the Court:
“I’ve made no decision except one: The person I will nominate will be somebody of extraordinary qualifications, character and integrity,” he said. “And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It is long overdue.”
However, Americans do not seem on board with the President's plan to limit his search by race according to a new ABC poll:
[J]ust over three-quarters of Americans (76%) want Biden to consider "all possible nominees." Just 23% want him to automatically follow through on his history-making commitment that the White House seems keen on seeing through. . .
Although the poll's sample size was not large enough to break out results for Black people, only a little more than 1 in 4 nonwhite Americans (28%) wish for Biden to consider only Black women for the vacancy. Democrats are more supportive of Biden's vow (46%) than Americans as a whole, but still a majority of Democrats (54%) also prefer that Biden consider all possible nominees.
Former Democrat Senator and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard echoed this sentiment, taking to Twitter to express concerns that making a decision based on race would be detrimental to the country.
Biden chose Harris as his VP because of the color of her skin and sex—not qualification. She's been a disaster. Now he promises to choose Supreme Court nominee on the same criteria. Identity politics is destroying our country.
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) January 31, 2022
Furthermore, the ABC poll found that a plurality of the respondents believe the Supreme Court is "motivated by partisanship."
The President is not doing anything to assuage these concerns. According to an MSNBC report, the Biden Administration is even considering far left activists who are not judges such as Melissa Murray and Sherrilyn Ifill.
MSNBC reports that Biden's short list of potential #SCOTUS nominees is now over a dozen pic.twitter.com/duojehtZBJ
— Samuel Benson (@sambbenson) January 31, 2022
Senator Susan Collins noted:
"The way that the President has handled this nomination has been clumsy at best," she said. "It adds to the further perception that the court is a political institution like Congress, when it is not supposed to be."
As Senator Marsha Blackburn told Fox News, President Biden has routinely nominated individuals to the judiciary who are "to the left," "radical," and "outside of the mainstream."
Biden’s Supreme Court nominee needs to be an experienced constitutionalist who will uphold the rule of law. pic.twitter.com/I1lfmLEVmv
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) January 31, 2022
This does not bode well for either the rule of law or President Biden's eventual nominee to replace Justice Breyer at the Supreme Court.