The United States will be on the cusp of another historic political and judicial moment soon, with President Joe Biden finding an opening to nominate the first black woman to the US Supreme Court following the announcement on Wednesday that Justice Stephen Breyer
is stepping down.
Biden appeared with Breyer, whom he has known since the 1970s, at the White House after the 83-year-old justice formally announced his retirement in a letter to the President. Breyer wrote that he plans to depart at the conclusion of the court’s current term, typically at the end of June, assuming his successor has been confirmed by the US Senate.
President Joe Biden strongly affirmed on 27 January 2022, that he will nominate the first Black woman to the US Supreme Court, declaring such historic representation is “long overdue” and promising to announce his choice by the end of February.
In a White House ceremony marking a moment of national transition, Biden praised retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, who will have spent nearly 28 years on the high court by the time he leaves at the end of the term, as “a model public servant at a time of great division in this country.”
And with that, the search for Breyer’s replacement was underway in full. Biden promised a nominee worthy of Breyer’s legacy and said he’d already been studying the backgrounds and writings of potential candidates.
“I’ve made no decision except one: The person I will nominate will be somebody of extraordinary qualifications, character, and integrity,” he said. “And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It is long overdue.”
Replacing Breyer with a like-minded justice is seen by many Democrats as critical in preserving the already beleaguered rump of liberals on the bench. The retiring justice is one of only three such individuals on the nine-justice court, and they are so outnumbered that the country now faces drastic changes in several key areas from abortion to guns and affirmative action.
Despite the pressure for haste among his party’s members, Biden insisted that he would be “rigorous” in choosing the nominee. He would listen to advise from senators and meet candidates, indicating a selection process that is likely to take weeks not days.
For his part, Justice Breyer is hoping that his successor can be confirmed and in place within the next six months. In his formal retirement letter to Biden, he said he would step down at the start of the court’s summer recess in June or July, “assuming that by then my successor has been nominated and confirmed”.
Speaking in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Breyer made a lyrical paean to American unity. Recalling a speech he likes to deliver to school students, he said that the US was an experiment that is still going on.
“My children and grandchildren will determine whether the experiment will last, and as an optimist, I’m pretty sure that it will,” he said.
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