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**FEBRUARY 23, 2022**
Kuttner on TAP
Biden's Supreme Court Pick
Appointing a centrist whom Republicans love is the wrong sort of
bipartisanship.
Joe Biden has named several outstanding progressives to key positions.
But if he gets an A-minus for the quality of appointees, he gets a
C-minus for the process. Too many appointments take far too long, and
too many key jobs are still unfilled.
Now, at last, we have the final selection of the next Supreme Court
nominee. The risk is that the appointment will go to the most
conservative of the three finalists, J. Michelle Childs, a South
Carolina state judge. That Childs is on the list at all is a disgrace.
She would not be under consideration but for South Carolina Rep. Jim
Clyburn, whose key endorsement helped Biden win the Democratic
nomination in 2020.
As the
**Prospect** has reported, Childs used to be a management-side labor
lawyer; and our colleague Alex Sammon broke the story of how Childs
sentenced a man
to 12 years for selling eight ounces of marijuana.
Biden needs to tell Clyburn: I promised you and the citizenry that I
would name a Black woman to the Supreme Court.
**I did not promise that you could pick her**. And, by the way, I have
repaid my political debt to you many times over. It is not an endless
spigot. Stop trying to jam me in public.
Biden also made an unforced error when he said he wanted a nominee who
could win Republican support
.
The only one of the three who meets that test is Childs. Lindsey Graham
thinks she's terrific (that alone should be disqualifying).
The Republicans have relentlessly and viciously politicized the Court.
For a Democratic president to name a centrist as a goodwill gesture
signals weakness and results in an even more right-wing Court. It is the
opposite of what Republicans did with Justices Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and
Amy Coney Barrett. Republicans had Barrett all teed up.
Democrats knew that Stephen Breyer would retire sooner or later. Ketanji
Brown Jackson, a progressive jurist and Breyer's former clerk, has
been groomed for the Supreme Court and has been precleared. She was
confirmed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last year, so no further
vetting was required. Jackson could, and should, have been appointed
within weeks of Breyer's announcement on January 26.
Biden will announce his nomination on the eve of next week's State of
the Union address. He has plenty of bipartisanship this week as
Americans unite against Putin's cynical ploys to annex Ukraine. Naming
a Supreme Court justice whom Republicans just love is the wrong sort of
unity, and it would appall his own most loyal supporters.
****
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
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Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter
**Robert Kuttner's latest book is**
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.
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'Benton Harbor Is Not Flint'-It's Worse
Another poor, majority-Black city in Michigan is facing a lead
contamination crisis brought on by gross apathy and neglect, but without
sustained national attention. BY JAROD FACUNDO
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Supreme Court Conservatives May Slash EPA's Authority on Climate
A decision limiting the federal agency's power to combat the climate
crisis could potentially have wider, catastrophic effects across a
broader range of health and safety issues. BY NOAH SACHS
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Rural Illinois Schools Hit Hard by COVID-19
Are state education officials doing enough to support teachers and
students? BY ADEN CHOATE
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