At Tuesday's State of the Union, President Joe Biden will no doubt try to distract from his disastrous presidency by hailing the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court as a "mainstream" pick to the Court. But what really is her judicial philosophy? As Professor Jonathan Turley points out, Judge Brown Jackson has evaded prior questioning about her judicial philosophy:

Liberals want a justice who is willing to expand the meaning of the Constitution without constitutional amendments. President Biden stressed that his nominee must follow a "living constitution" approach, including a broad view of “unenumerated rights.” When asked if she supported such an approach, Childs answered "no." Jackson, in contrast, has been far more obscure and conflicted in her response.

On Friday, President Joe Biden officially announced the nomination of D.C. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Brown Jackson has long been seen as the frontrunner to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Court.

Happening Now: President Biden delivers remarks on his nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. https://t.co/kfVZTKYjTb

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 25, 2022

On Monday, The Washington Post published a puff piece on Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, lauding him for potentially presiding over the confirmation of the first Black female Supreme Court Justice. But as RNLA Executive Director Michael Thielen points out, Durbin has a long history of "abuse and bigotry" against judicial nominees during his time on the Committee, the most recent example being how he grilled Justice Amy Coney Barrett about her Catholic beliefs.

And contrary to WaPo’s claim he “cement[ed] his status as a player” for “racial advancement,” @dickdurbin’s history on the Judiciary Committee is rife with anti-Catholic & anti-Hispanic attacks. He asked Justice Barrett if she was an “orthodox Catholic”3/5 https://t.co/sVjOuwiFrT

— Michael Thielen (@MB_Thielen) February 22, 2022

The media just attempted to smear Justice Thomas again, but as is often the case, they came off as bluntly racist instead. In an article written about Rep. Jim Clyburn's influence on President Joe Biden's pick to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court, reporters Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Marianna Sotomayor wrote (emphasis added):

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), a friend and ally of Clyburn's for over 30 years, said even Clyburn's critics respect his political instincts and his connection with a valuable but often disappointed subset of Democratic voters.

"Nobody that I'm aware of feels that opposing Clyburn's nomination would be the wise thing to do," he said. "If you know that a person has been vetted by Jim Clyburn, you know that person won't go to the court and end up being a Clarence Thomas," referring to the Black justice whose rulings often resemble the thinking of White conservatives.

Another poll has shown that Americans would prefer President Joe Biden pick the "most qualified" person to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court as opposed to strictly sticking with his pledge to nominate a Black woman to the Court:

[J]ust 36 percent of Americans say Biden’s pledge was a "good idea," while the rest say it was either “a bad idea” (32 percent) or “neither good nor bad” (32 percent). And just a third of Americans say they have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence that Biden will select "the right kind of person" to replace Breyer on the court (33 percent), or that they themselves expect to support the nominee Biden puts forward (34 percent) — noticeably lower than the 39 percent who said they expected to support "President Trump's Supreme Court nominee" in September 2020, just before he nominated Amy Coney Barrett.

Ever since Joe Biden became President, the Left has pressured Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire through a campaign spearheaded by "dark money" groups like Demand Justice:

After President Biden’s election, Demand Justice started bullying Justice Stephen Breyer into retirement. It ran aggressive ads and drove a mobile billboard around the Supreme Court that said: “Breyer, retire. It’s time for a Black woman Supreme Court justice. There’s no time to waste.” 

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.”

On Wednesday, the news broke that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire at the end of this year's term. The National Review reported:

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer plans to retire at the end of the Court’s current term after serving for 27 years, providing President Biden his first opportunity to appoint a justice to the High Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will hear two separate challenges to race-based admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. The National Review reported:

The Court will hear challenges by non-profit Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. The group alleges that Harvard discriminates against Asian applicants, and that UNC uses race in admissions even though “race-neutral alternatives can achieve diversity.”

On Tuesday, NPR's Nina Totenberg issued a report claiming that conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch refused to mask-up during oral arguments earlier this month despite a request from Chief Justice John Roberts to do so out of respect for Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The report stated:

They all did. Except Gorsuch, who, as it happens, sits next to Sotomayor on the bench. His continued refusal since then has also meant that Sotomayor has not attended the justices' weekly conference in person, joining instead by telephone.