With President Biden set to announce a nominee to replace the retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer by the end of February, most Americans now say they’re lukewarm about his promise to pick a Black woman for the first time in U.S. history, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll — while also saying the top three Black women on Biden’s shortlist are “qualified” to sit on the court.
One possible explanation for this tepid response is that many Americans seem to believe that their leaders can and should choose only "the most qualified" person regardless of race, gender or politics — an ideal they think Biden failed to live up to when he explicitly limited the pool to Black women.
Childs was identified as 55 years old; a graduate of University of South Carolina Law School, with a legal master's degree from Duke University Law School; a former senior partner in a South Carolina law firm; and a current judge on the U.S. Circuit Appeals Court for South Carolina who has been nominated to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. A full 70 percent of Americans say Childs is qualified to sit on the court, including 60 percent of Republicans.
As a point of comparison, the poll also asked whether three former Supreme Court candidates — Amy Coney Barrett, Merrick Garland and Sidney Thomas — were qualified to serve at the time when they were either nominated or considered for a seat.Left unsaid — but presumably widely known — was the fact former President Donald Trump appointed Coney Barrett to the court and President Barack Obama nominated Garland, who was then blocked by a Republican Senate.
As anyone who has followed a Supreme Court confirmation process over the last several decades knows, there has never been a justice selected on qualifications alone. Politics and identity always enter into the equation. For most of U.S. history, only white men were considered for the job. During the 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan said, "One of the first Supreme Court vacancies in my administration will be filled by the most qualified woman I can possibly find.
While that question framed Biden’s promise as exclusionary rather than inclusionary, even the more neutral options provided in the new Yahoo News/YouGov poll reveal that many Americans say they would rather their leaders ignore politics and identity in pursuit of some Platonic vision of unalloyed merit.
No surprise there. Republicans want the best qualified person; Democrats just want a black face.
I think the obvious choice is being overlooked........Barrack Obama. He is more than qualified and probably has the best credentials of anyone.
They need to nominate the most qualified person for the position. Whether it be black,white ,female or male. Period.
And you talk about racist… How much more races can you be? Selecting by race and gender eliminating any other race or gender the opportunity… Wow!!!
🔵 Making judgements from different views is important. °👁️
Should not be anything about the color of skin. What happened to the most qualified?
All the black women are highly qualified and it will happen period
*1,628 adults polled 🤔🧐🤦♀️
Affirmative action at work. Your suitability and qualifications take a back seat to balancing the scales of racial and gender equality.
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