Joe Biden is trying to run against President Trump as the candidate who will restore transparency and integrity to the presidency, but hiding his potential nominees for the Supreme Court has hindered that message. Senate Democrats want to keep it that way.
Led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, several Senate Democrats have said they don’t want Biden to release a list of nominees publicly. “I sincerely hope he does not do that,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, adding that Republicans were just doing it to “preclear every nominee for the Supreme Court” with the Federalist Society. Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who sits with Durbin on the Senate Judiciary Committee, also said he wouldn’t recommend it.
When then-candidate Trump released his list of Supreme Court nominees in 2016, he assuaged a lot of concerns among conservatives who thought he wouldn’t appoint originalist judges and from voters who wondered whether he would take the presidency seriously. Exit polls showed voters who factored Supreme Court nominees into their decision, a group that made up 70% of respondents, broke for Trump by 2 points. Voters who declared it their most important factor went for Trump by 15 points.
Biden and the Democrats know the dilemma they are in here. Voters sided with Trump’s transparency on court nominations in 2016, and a list of left-wing judges would widen that spread. Biden also couldn’t come out with a list of “moderate” nominees because the left flank of the party is only begrudgingly following him now, and depressing their turnout could cost him the presidency and Senate Democrats their chance to retake the chamber. Liberal groups have already put together lists of progressive nominees they would like Democrats to take on, and it’s not clear that any list Biden would be choosing from would be any different.
It’s clear that any voter who cares about the trajectory of the Supreme Court has no reason to trust that Joe Biden or Senate Democrats would push through qualified nominees who interpret the law rather than make it up from the bench. Biden has only said that he would appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court, with no mention of any qualifications or jurisprudence. Try as he might to be the transparency candidate, this glaring hole in Biden’s campaign should be of the utmost importance to voters in November.
