Reportedly, President Joe Biden is about to decide on his Supreme Court Justice nominee as soon as he concludes interviews. Finalists are considered to include Judges Leondra Kruger, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California, and J. Michelle Childs, United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. The candidacy of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has gotten an endorsement from civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
According to ABC News, Crump, who has represented the families of Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and others, feels Biden should nominate Jackson based on her principles of justice and fairness.
“In my view, that of a civil rights lawyer and advocate who is committed to bringing justice, respect, and fairness to this nation, and particularly to my community, that woman is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson,” Crump said in a statement, provided first to ABC News.
Crump’s endorsement is the first from a high-profile Black civil rights advocate. It’s a break from Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), who has been pushing for J. Michelle Childs to get the vacancy–on the basis that she would get bipartisan support. If Biden nominates Childs, it would be a departure from promoting judicial nominees with backgrounds as public defenders and civil rights lawyers.
“I want us to make sure that it is a Black woman, I want to make sure that it’s a woman that will get universal support. When I say universal I mean bipartisan support,” Clyburn said.
“And I know that Michelle Childs will have support of several Republicans, including the two Republican senators from South Carolina,” he added.
Crump went on in his statement reiterating the civil rights implications that a Black woman on the Supreme Court would bring:
“My standards for this nominee go beyond integrity, brilliance and fairness,” Crump said in the statement. “I carry the additional purchase that this justice must represent African Americans in a way that has cultural competency, forcefulness and instills deep pride.”