By Josh Lederman and Tim Stelloh —
NBC News
President Joe Biden is considering Justice J. Michelle Childs as a possible candidate to succeed Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer when he retires later this year, a White House spokesman confirmed Friday night.
Childs, a judge on the South Carolina District Court,
is the first person the Biden administration has publicly identified as a possible candidate
in a selection process that is expected to last until February.
Biden recently nominated Childs for a seat on the Washington circuit.
[Biden will nominate a black woman with "character, experience and integrity" for the progressive vacancy on the Supreme Court]
“Judge Childs is among multiple individuals being considered for the Supreme Court,
and we will not be moving her nomination up the Court of Appeals while the President is considering her for this vacancy,” the White House spokesman said. Andrew Bates, in a statement.
The Washington Post was the first to report that Biden was considering her.
Judge J. Michelle Childs of the South Carolina District Court, in an undated photo. Courtesy of the court / via REUTERS
Childs is the preferred candidate of House Majority Leader James Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina, a longtime Biden ally who played a key role in encouraging the president to promise on the campaign trail to appoint a woman. black for the highest court if given the chance.
[Why the vacancy on the Supreme Court will be key in this year's mid-term elections]
The judge was scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week for a confirmation hearing on her candidacy for the Washington Circuit Court of Appeals, but the White House is deferring her testimony while she is considered for the Supreme Court.
In addition to Childs, high-profile contenders include federal appeals judge
Ketanji Brown Jackson
and California Supreme Court Justice
Leondra Kruger.
A source familiar with the White House process told NBC News this week that two others are being considered: New York University law professor
Melissa Murray
and
Wilhelmina Wright,
a U.S. district court judge in Minnesota. .
[These are three of the possible candidates to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court]
Bates pointed out that any
"information indicating that the president is only seriously considering three possible candidates is incorrect."
Breyer, 83, is the oldest member of the court and the second longest in office after Justice Clarence Thomas.
After more than 27 years on the court, and as one of only three liberal justices left, progressive activists have been pushing for him to resign as Democrats control Congress.
