The White House said Friday President Joe Biden intends to nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Biden was expected to formally introduce the 51-year-old Brown Jackson, currently serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, as his choice during a White House ceremony at Weapons Complex Monitor’s deadline. The judge’s nomination does fulfill Biden’s campaign promise to pick a black woman to serve on the high court.
But barring Brown Jackson running into confirmation trouble in the Senate, the news means U.S. District Court Judge Michelle Childs of South Carolina, who has presided over several Department of Energy nuclear complex cases, won’t head to the U.S. Supreme Court. Childs seemed to have the backing of the state’s two Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott. Scott is the only black Republican in the Senate.
The high court opening is created by the retirement plans of Stephen Breyer. As for Childs, the Biden administration had already nominated her to serve on the D.C. Circuit Court where Brown Jackson now sits.