A majority of Americans want President Joe Biden to consider all potential nominees to the Supreme Court and reject his pledged affirmative action to nominate the first black woman to the court.
Surveying 510 adults between January 28 and 29, the ABC News-Ipsos poll showed that more than three-quarters of Americans (76 percent) want the president to consider “all possible nominees” when replacing Justice Stephen Breyer. Only 23 percent want him to honor his pledge of nominating the first black woman to the court.
BREAKING: Just over three-quarters of Americans (76%) want Pres. Biden to consider “all possible nominees,” while 23% want him to follow through on his commitment to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, per a new @ABC News/Ipsos poll. https://t.co/FHLGrgJg9Z
— ABC News (@ABC) January 30, 2022
When broken down by party lines, a full 54 percent of Democrats want Biden to consider all potential nominees to the Supreme Court irrespective of the candidate’s race or gender. Here’s how the poll breaks down by demographics:
Although the poll’s sample size was not large enough to break out results for Black people, only a little more than 1 in 4 nonwhite Americans (28 percent) wish for Biden to consider only Black women for the vacancy. Democrats are more supportive of Biden’s vow (46 percent) than Americans as a whole, but still a majority of Democrats (54 percent) also prefer that Biden consider all possible nominees.
In what can only be described as a blow to American’s perception of judicial independence, the poll showed that 43 percent of Americans believe the Supreme Court is a partisan institution in which the justices rule “on the basis of their partisan political views.”
Shortly after Breyer announced his retirement last week, Joe Biden said he would nominate the first black woman to the court, a pledge he made to Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) during the 2020 presidential primary to secure his endorsement after losing several states to Bernie Sanders. Speaking with the Washington Post, Clyburn confirmed that his endorsement came with the caveat that Biden pledge to nominate a black woman.
Not a single time has a Black woman ever been seriously considered. And so I took that issue up with then-candidate Biden back in 2020 … How many times have you heard it said that black women are the backbone of the Democratic Party?”
Well, you just can’t say you’ve got to show it. I happen to have been born and raised in the past, and I believe it’s their deeds that matter, not their words. And so President Biden made it a commitment at the Charleston debate back in February. Two years ago, and said that if he got the opportunity, he would appoint or nominate an African-American woman to serve on the court.
Clyburn also confirmed to the Washington Post that he has been strongly pushing Biden to select U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs since the start of his presidency.
“Now, as it relates to who, I don’t have anything against the seven or eight names that I have been floated as possibilities, they’re all great people,” Clyburn said. “The fact of the matter is, I have been discussing Michelle Childs with the president and his people now for, I guess at least 13 months now.”
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