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FEBRUARY 1, 2022

Meyerson on TAP

The GOP's Two Attacks on Biden's Possible Court Pick

The top Republican on the Judiciary Committee can't complain about
'affirmative action,' but there's a fallback strategy.

In October of 1980, Ronald Reagan had a problem. His polling showed he
had opened a lead among likely male voters in his race to unseat
Democratic President Jimmy Carter, but that he trailed badly among
women. His response was to call a press conference where he announced
that he'd appoint a woman to the Supreme Court the next time a seat
came open. When a seat did in fact come open the following year,
then-President Reagan honored his pledge by nominating Sandra Day
O'Connor to the Court.

Only one Republican serving in the Senate today was a senator back in
1981 when O'Connor's nomination came before the body for an
up-or-down vote. As events would have it, that senator is now the
ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee: Iowa's Charles
Grassley.

Did Grassley object that Reagan was engaged in some kind of gender-based
affirmative action by limiting his choice to women only? (That's an
argument that a number of his current Republican colleagues have made
against President Biden's announcement-made, like Reagan's, during
his run for the presidency-that he'd appoint a Black woman to the
Court.)

No. The famously outspoken Grassley emitted not even a syllable of
opposition to Reagan's carrying through on his pledge to nominate a
woman. Neither did any of his Republican colleagues, who then controlled
the Senate. O'Connor was confirmed by a vote of 99 to zero.

If today's Republicans had any capacity for embarrassment, their
blatant double standard on this issue might give them pause. So far,
however, their response to Biden's choice-which, of course, precedes
Biden's choice-continues to focus on his winnowing of the field in
accord with what they see as the dastardly doctrine of affirmative
action.

Actually, that's one of two Republican responses we've seen so far.
The second is to hint at a slight preference for Judge J. Michelle
Childs, the preferred pick of South Carolina Democratic Pooh-Bah James
Clyburn. As my colleague Alex Sammon documented

yesterday, Childs's career includes dozens of instances when she
represented employers against workers while in private practice. That
may explain why South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham has sounded
positive about her, and why The Wall Street Journal ran a curious op-ed

yesterday supporting her nomination. This posturing toward Childs
creates some space for Republicans to express dismay if, as expected,
Biden picks Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a distinguished jurist who
decisively struck down President Trump's efforts to curtail union
activity among federal employees. By their grunting acceptance of
Childs, some Republicans doubtless think they can duck accusations that
they're playing to a white racist base (or are white racists
themselves), while positioning themselves to go after Jackson, should
she be the nominee, on presumably less racism-tainted ideological
grounds.

That's clearly the tack that the senior Republican on the Judiciary
Committee will have to take. When it comes to the "affirmative action"
attack, the voluble Chuck Grassley will have to shut up.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter

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