January 27, 2022
So many people want to know what Supreme Court Justice qualifications entail. This video runs down those facts.
Why is the President saying he’s going to nominate a black woman to replace Justice Breyer? Why can’t he just select a judge that’s the most qualified.
I’ve been hearing that comment over and over from lots of you. So, this video is going to show you how ‘qualified” each Supreme Court justice sitting on the court today – is — based on the facts of their resumes. Spoiler alert – one justice on the court now – had *no* experience as a judge. Let that sink in.
Let me start with – the President said today he would make his selection for Justice Breyer’s replacement in the next month. He said the candidates will go through a rigorous screening process. Now, it is the constitutional privilege and duty of a President to nominate someone to fill a vacant Supreme Court seat. It’s the President’s choice. Period. I’ve said this for years, elections have consequences. This is one. Second, just because the president says he wants to diversify the make up of the high court by adding the first black woman doesn’t mean she also won’t be the most qualified for the job. Understand — in any given year there is a large pool of extraordinary judges to choose from who are absolutely qualified as the ‘best option” to sit on the court. Qualifications – are very subjective, as you’ll see when I tell you about the justices who are on the court now. President Biden – like most modern Presidents before him – is signaling what his preference is from that pool of qualified judges. Presidents Trump and Reagan announced their preferences too, they wanted to nominate women.
Now – let’s talk about the “qualifications” of the current justices.
Eight of the nine either went to Yale or Harvard. Justice Amy Coney Barrett is the only one who didn’t go to an ivy league school. She went to Notre Dame.
Six were law clerks under previous justices. Justices Thomas, Alito and Sotomayor did not clerk for a justice.
Eight were appellate court judges, three sat on the DC Circuit court of Appeals – which is often called the “feeder” court to the Supreme Court.
Justice Kagan – like two conservative justices before her (Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice Powell) – actually had *no* experience as a judge. Though she clerked for a Supreme Court justice and has an extensive background in law as the Dean of Harvard law school and Solicitor General for the United States. Justice Thomas – only spent a total of 16 months as a judge –sitting on the DC appellate court before he was nominated to the Supreme Court.
You can see nominating a justice isn’t just about their resume. It’s about their character, who they are as human beings and legal scholars, and how their personality and resume will fit in with the dynamic of the Supreme Court.
