Graham calls criticism of SC Judge Childs ‘vicious’ at Supreme Court hearings for Jackson
South Carolina’s senior senator said Monday he’s still upset that President Joe Biden did not nominate federal Judge Michelle Childs to the U.S. Supreme Court and blamed liberal groups for keeping her from getting the high court nod.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham made the comments Monday at the start of several hearings to confirm Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. The hearings will continue Tuesday and through the week.
Graham repeated Monday that had Childs been the nominee she would have received at least 60 votes in the Senate and had his support and that of another South Carolinan, Sen. Tim Scott.
“President Biden has every right to pick who he’d like to pick. That comes with winning the White House, and I’ve been very inclined to support the picks of people that I would not have chosen,” Graham said. “This is a new game for the Supreme Court, and this game is particularly disturbing to me, because there’s been a wholesale effort of the left to take down a nominee from my state, and I don’t like it very much.”
If confirmed, Jackson would become the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court.
Biden made the promise in 2020 to House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-Columbia, and to the public on the Charleston debate stage ahead of the state’s Democratic presidential primary, which he eventually won, that he would nominate a Black woman to the bench if elected president.
Prior to considering her for the high court, Biden nominated Childs, who is Black, to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That nomination is still active.
“I think it’s good for the court to look like America,” Graham said Monday. “So count me in on the idea of making the court more diverse. And in the history of our country, we’ve never had an African American woman serve on the court.”
But Graham added Monday that he was still frustrated that liberal groups fought Childs’ consideration, and attempted to define her as anti-union.
“The attacks from the left against Judge Childs was really pretty vicious to be honest with you,” Graham said. “So you say, Judge Jackson, you don’t have any judicial philosophy per se. Well, somebody on the left believes you do or they wouldn’t have spent the money they spent to have you in this chair. So we’re going to find out how that statement holds up over time.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 2:28 PM.
