Here's Who Joe Biden Might Appoint to the Supreme Court (And Why It's Ketanji Brown Jackson)...

     This is set to be a historic Black History Month, not least of all because of the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. President Biden stated in his announcement of Breyer's retirement that he would determine a successor by the end of February and that he would keep his campaign promise and nominate the first black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court in its nearly 250-year history.

     There are a lot of names floating around. They are all excellent candidates; however, those who are not black women are not in the running. That is not to say that they cannot be nominated for other high-level federal judgeships. Kenji Yoshino, an openly gay Japanese American who is a professor at Harvard, could fill one of the multitudes of open seats for the District of Massachusetts. Pamela S. Karlan, a bisexual Jewish woman, has made controversial statements in the past, so she would best serve on a court like the Northern District of California. Goodwin Liu should be reappointed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, an opportunity he gave up serving on the California Supreme Court over a decade ago. Mariano Florentino-Cuéllar, husband of Ninth Circuit Appeals Court judge Lucy Koh, has a seat with his name on it in the Central District of California. J. Paul Oetken and Robert Pitman, the first-openly gay men to serve on the federal bench and in the Fifth Circuit, respectively (Pitman ruled against Texas' social media censorship law and its six-week abortion ban), should serve on the Courts of Appeals for the Second and Fifth Districts, respectively. 

     I think the best candidate for President Biden to nominate is Ketanji Brown Jackson. Out of all of his judicial nominees, she was the only one listed as a potential Supreme Court nominee from the moment she was picked. She once clerked under Justice Breyer and was appointed by Biden to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is the court almost always seen as the steppingstone to the highest one in the land and also happens to be the judgeship that Merrick Garland held before being nominated as Biden's attorney general. She is relatively young at 51, meaning she could serve for 30 years or so, and has an Ivy League education, something almost all of President Biden's judicial nominees share. Because she was already confirmed to a federal court in 2021, Biden won't have to vet her, that is to check her background, like he would with some of the other nominees. She is also a public defender, a profession that composes one in three of President Biden's judicial nominees; this would make her the only one currently serving on the Supreme Court. Her work on the Sentencing Commission for President Obama, whose staff President Biden has largely selected and elevated to higher positions, was a major part of Obama's efforts to end the War on Drugs, especially in reducing the crack-cocaine sentencing disparity.

     Sherrilyn Ifill, who served as the president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, is a Jamaican American New Yorker, which makes her the perfect candidate to fill an open seat in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Melissa Murphy, too, could serve on that court or on the Eastern District of New York, or vice-versa. Leondra Kruger, without question, belongs on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  Danielle Holley-Walker, Dean of Howard University Law School, could be appointed to Jackson's vacancy on the D.C. Circuit. Michelle Alexander should replace Timothy Black on the Southern District of Ohio. Tamika Montgomery-Reeves, who at just 40 is an Associate Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, needs to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Anita Earls could serve on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

     The biggest bone of contention is J. Michelle Childs, preferred by Jim Clyburn, the man who most likely made Biden president by swaying the black vote. Childs was nominated to the D.C. Circuit by Biden, and perhaps the best thing for the president to do would be to ensure Clyburn would still be happy having her there.

     This is a blueprint to fill the federal bench (at least a dozen or so of the vacancies) with diverse, qualified, progressive individuals, but I believe that President Biden has already made the right choice in picking a black woman and will do so when deciding who America's newest Supreme Court justice will be, exactly.