Democracy for America, a group started by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, criticized President Obama’s pick to join the Supreme Court on Wednesday because Judge Merrick Garland is not a “progressive woman of color.”
“It’s deeply disappointing that President Obama failed to use this opportunity to add the voice of another progressive woman of color to the Supreme Court, and instead put forward a nominee seemingly designed to appease intransigent Republicans rather than inspire the grassroots he’ll need to get that nominee through the Senate gauntlet,” the group stated.
The group had gathered 135,000 signatures to a petition asking Obama to name a minority woman to the seat.
But the White House defended Obama’s choice, by arguing that Obama nominated the first Latina to the high court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Justice Elena Kagan, who is only the fourth female Supreme Court justice.
“He has appointed 117 minorities to the federal judiciary; that’s more than any other president,” Earnest continued. “He has appointed 26 African-American women to the federal bench; that is more than any other president.”
Obama has appointed 37 Latinos, 20 Asians, and 11 LGBT candidates, “so the president’s commitment to the principle of ensuring that we have a judiciary that looks like the rest of the country is rock solid,” Earnest said.
Asian-American activists hoped early front-runner Judge Sri Srinivasan would become the first Asian American or Pacific Islander, but kept their disappointment to themselves in the immediate wake of Garland’s nomination.
Both men sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, of which Garland is the chief justice.
Likewise, the major black and civil rights groups have so far given Obama a pass. The NAACP and Leadership Council on Civil Rights, for example, both issued statements applauding the choice of Garland.
