The White House vowed Wednesday to fight any effort to “tarnish” the reputation of President Joe Biden’s eventual Supreme Court nominee.
Biden’s team has kept the process for replacing retiring Justice Stephen Breyer under wraps, but the president has pledged to nominate a black woman to the seat. He said earlier this month that he had done a “deep dive” on four prospects.
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“We have also seen efforts to mar their reputations,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said of the prospective nominees. “And what we mean by that is we are going to fight back even before the president has made a decision or made an announcement against efforts to tar any of their reputations.”
“That means defending them publicly, standing up for them, providing information to debunk any information that’s being put out against them that’s inaccurate,” Psaki continued, adding, “Hopefully, they all feel that we’ve delivered on that promise.”
Grio White House correspondent April Ryan extracted this commitment by asking what Biden’s team was prepared to do to defend the reputation of the nominee.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh faced a sexual assault allegation from Christine Blasey Ford, who testified before the Senate during his confirmation hearings, following his nomination by former President Donald Trump.
Justice Clarence Thomas was accused of sexual harassment by former colleague Anita Hill during his confirmation hearings following his nomination by former President George H.W. Bush. Biden was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee at that time and presided over these hearings.
Judge Robert Bork was rejected by the Senate following his nomination by former President Ronald Reagan. Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, delivered a speech in which he said “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is often the only protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy.”
After the Thomas and Bork hearings, only nine Republican senators voted against Breyer, and only three opposed former President Bill Clinton’s nomination of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Republicans blocked Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court by former President Barack Obama when they controlled the Senate during a presidential election year, but they did not engage in any sustained attacks on his character or record. They held no confirmation hearings for Garland, who is now the attorney general of the United States.
Garland’s nomination — following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative icon — would have tipped the balance of the court.
There was some controversy over Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s use of the phrase “wise Latina” in a speech before joining the court during her confirmation hearings after Obama nominated her.
Similarly, there have been some objections to Biden limiting his search for a Supreme Court justice to black women. “The fact that he’s willing to make a promise at the outset, that it must be a black woman, I got to say that’s offensive,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican. “You know, black women are what, 6% of the U.S. population? He’s saying to 94% of Americans, ‘I don’t give a damn about you. You are ineligible.’”
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One woman believed to be on Biden’s short list, South Carolina Judge J. Michelle Childs, has been criticized by the Left for being too pro-business. Rep. James Clyburn, the South Carolina Democrat boosting her nomination, has argued that she could win bipartisan support.
“Some of the criticism I’ve seen out there is related to her labor record,” Psaki said of Childs, a U.S. district judge. “If you look at South Carolina, the [American Federation of Labor] in South Carolina endorsed her and has been supportive of her.”
