Democrats already maneuvering to shape Bidenâs first Supreme Court pick
By Jonathan Martin New York Times,Updated February 21, 2021, 6:33 p.m.
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The US Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 7, 2020.Al Drago/Bloomberg
WASHINGTON â After meeting in the Oval Office earlier this month with President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and his fellow senior House Democrats, Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina made a beeline to Harrisâs office in the West Wing to privately raise a topic that did not come up during their group discussion: the Supreme Court.
Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black American in Congress, wanted to offer Harris the name of a potential future justice, according to a Democrat briefed on their conversation. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs would fulfill Bidenâs pledge to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court â and, Clyburn noted, she also happened to hail from South Carolina, a state
WASHINGTON After meeting in the Oval Office earlier this month with President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and his fellow senior House Democrats, Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina made a beeline to Ms. Harris’s office in the West Wing to privately raise a topic that did not come up during their group discussion: the Supreme Court.
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Judicial appointments are the brightest lights of Donald Trump’s turbulent presidency. Long after his tax cuts have been reversed and regulatory reforms rescinded, indeed long after his tweets have been memory-holed, the youthful originalists Trump appointed to the bench, most notably three Supreme Court justices, will still affect our lives.
But that’s actually one of the least surprising things about the Trump years, because presidents have few constitutional powers, at least in the domestic sphere, more important than appointing judges. Ruth Bader Ginsburg served nearly 30 years on the high court, giving President Bill Clinton’s legal agenda a bridge to the 21st century. Antonin Scalia did the same for President Ronald Reagan.