President Joe Biden said Thursday that he will nominate the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court as retiring Justice Stephen Breyer’s replacement.
The president, flanked by Breyer, told the nation in televised remarks that he would make his pick by the end of February and that the nominee will be “worthy of Justice Breyer’s legacy and excellence and decency.”
“I’ve made no decision except one. The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience, and integrity, and that person will be the first black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court,” he said. “It’s long overdue in my mind. I made that commitment during my campaign for president. I will keep it. I will fully do what I said.”
The president added that he would specifically lean on Vice President Kamala Harris throughout the selection process because “she was an exceptional lawyer, the attorney general of the state of California, and a former member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
BREYER RETIREMENT COULD BE ANOTHER BUILD BACK BETTER ROADBLOCK
“I will listen carefully to all the advice I am given,” Biden added. “I will study the records of former cases carefully, meet with potential nominees, and it is my intention, my intention, to announce my decision before the end of February.”
“I enormously appreciate the privilege of serving as part of the federal judicial system — nearly 14 years as a Court of Appeals Judge and nearly 28 years as a Member of the Supreme Court,” Breyer wrote in his letter to the White House. “I have found the work challenging and meaningful. My relations with each of my colleagues have been warm and friendly. Throughout, I have been aware of the great honor of participating as a judge in the effort to maintain our Constitution and the rule of law.”
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You can watch Biden’s remarks in full below.
