it is now solidly 6-3 in favor of conservatives. we ve seen justice breyer in recent weeks join fiery dissents with his two other similarly minded justices. sonia sotomayor and elena kagan, in the vaccine mandate case that came from the biden administration and dissents in the decisions allowing the texas abortion ban to stay in place. so justice breyer has been outspoken but there is still a lot more work to do in this term and now there s work to do for the white house, determining who will be the next nominee. we understand that there are probably two names leading contenders. president biden pledged to put in place a black woman. we ve learned through sources that ketanji brown jackson is on the circuit court of appeals is a leading contender along with leondra kruger.
chance to nominate a justice on a campaign trail. he vowed to nominate a black woman and we have known justice breyer has been pressured to step down. at the top of the list is judge ketanji brown jackson. she is seen as the front-runner, a former supreme court clerk for breyer and recently vetted by the biden white house and confirmed to the d.c. court of appeals to fill the seat left vacant by attorney general merrick garland. that court is often seen as a feeder for the supreme court. now a close second is leondra cuei kruger. she s argued dozens of cases before the court but has not been as thoroughly vetted. we know with the midterms looming time is of the essence here.
serve on the d.c. circuit court of appeals and 45-year-old associate justice leondra kruger of the california supreme court, plus 55-year-old michelle childs, a federal judge in south carolina. more than anything justice breyer believed in civility, gaining a reputation as a thoughtful listener and reaching for compromise whenever possible. he was good friends with his ideological opposite, the late justice antonin scalia, and believed it was possible to disagree agreeably. there s no reason we can t be friends. there is no reason that human beings cannot differ civilly on matters of great importance. reporter: jessica schneider, cnn, washington. let s continue this discussion. i want to bring back jeffrey toobin and paula reid and abby phillip. paul, i understand you have more on the short list who are some of the women president biden could be reviewing as potential replacements? this is as big as it gets. this is president biden s first