February's short month is coming to a close, and President Joe Biden is expected to announce his pick to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer any day now to make that March 1 date, which White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki assured he would. On Thursday, as opposed to its standard Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit released an opinion, causing further chatter on account of how Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is on the panel.
As SCOTUSBlog's Katie Barlow mentioned in her tweet, the same happened before then Judge Brett Kavanaugh was nominated from the panel to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The DC Circuit just released an opinion today — on a Thursday — rather than the standard Tuesday, Friday drop. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is on the panel. https://t.co/nHgiEfkab4 https://t.co/ZQ4DYIBazL
— Katie Barlow (@katieleebarlow) February 24, 2022
Judge Jackson has been considered a front-runner from the start. Barlow also did a TikTok video profiling the judge and other front-runners, which she shared over Twitter.
Earlier this month, as Katie covered, it was revealed that White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain had leaked news of Breyer's retirement before the justice planned to announce it.
Shortly after the news of the retirement, the White House confirmed that the president was committed to fulfilling a campaign promise that he would limit his pick to a Black woman.
Polling shows that the American people are not in line with such limited criteria, though.
Last month, a poll from ABC News/Ipsos revealed that 76 percent of respondents thought Biden should "consider all possible nominees," while 23 percent thought he should "consider only nominees who are Black women, as he has pledged to do." Even 54 percent of Democrats wanted him to broaden his horizons.
And, a Yahoo News/YouGov poll from earlier this month revealed that a majority of Americans, at 55 percent, don't think it's important for Biden to nominate a Black woman to the Court. This includes a plurality, of 36 percent, who say it's "not very important."
Should Biden indeed pick Judge Jackson, he may be disappointing Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who, as Katie mentioned earlier, has come out in support of Judge J. Michelle Childs. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has come out in support of Biden's more discriminatory selection criteria, also publicly supports Judge Childs, who is a district judge of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina.
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