GOP South Carolina Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott expressed disappointment President Joe Biden tapped Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson over Judge J. Michelle Childs as the nominee to replace Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, who is slated to retire at the end of the term.
Top lawmakers in the Palmetto State, including House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a key Democrat, had advocated for Childs to be selected for the position, but their lobbying efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.
Graham, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, alleged that the selection of Jackson “means the radical Left has won President Biden,” asserting that Childs would have received his backing. Jackson has faced sharp criticism from conservatives, who have blasted some of her rulings that were later overturned by higher courts.
“If media reports are accurate, and Judge Jackson has been chosen as the Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Breyer, it means the radical Left has won President Biden over yet again,” he tweeted just ahead of the announcement. “The attacks by the Left on Judge Childs from South Carolina apparently worked. I expect a respectful but interesting hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
Graham, who was one of the three Republicans along with Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska to vote in favor of confirming Jackson, a Harvard graduate, to the powerful D.C. Circuit Court last year, argued that the pick continued the “Harvard-Yale train to the Supreme Court.”
“The Harvard-Yale train to the Supreme Court continues to run unabated,” he continued.
Scott added that he believes Childs, who faced pushback from liberal groups over the 2009 sentencing over a nonviolent marijuana crime in which she sentenced a man to 12 years in prison, would have received broad bipartisan support. The South Carolina Republican added that he looks forward to reviewing and discussing Jackson’s record as he weighs his support.
“I look forward to meeting with Judge Jackson and thoroughly vetting her record, as I have done for all previous nominees to the Supreme Court during my time in the Senate,” he said in a statement.
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“As a fellow South Carolinian and the product of some of America’s finest public schools, I believe Judge Michelle Childs would have been an excellent nominee to our nation’s highest court. I am disappointed that President Biden missed the opportunity to nominate a highly-qualified judge who would have garnered widespread bipartisan support.”
Biden announced Jackson’s nomination on Friday. If she is confirmed, she will be the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
