At least one prospective candidate for a vacancy in the U.S. Supreme Court has first-hand experience with litigation concerning the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex.
National media, including The Washington Post and the Associated Press, have reported U.S. District Court Judge Julianna Michelle Childs of South Carolina is on the shortlist of those expected to be considered by President Joe Biden to succeed 83-year-old Justice Stephen Breyer. Breyer formally announced his retirement plans at a White House appearance Thursday. Biden said he expects to reveal a nominee by the end of February.
Childs, 56, was nominated to the federal judiciary by then-President Barack Obama in 2009 and confirmed by the Senate in 2010. Last month Biden nominated her to serve on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Childs recently refused to block a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy by the prime contractor at the Savannah River Site, Fluor-led Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS).
Another SRNS case overseen by Childs, which never reached the decision stage, was an aborted attempt by the Department of Justice to prosecute the contractor on a False Claims Act lawsuit dating to 2016 over reimbursement for home office expenses. In July, Childs agreed to withdraw the case after the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals issued an advisory option in favor of the contractor.
Also, in 2019, Childs presided over a trial in which a jury ruled against Amentum-led Savannah River Remediation and awarded a plaintiff about $1.8 million in a racial discrimination case. In March 2020, Judge Childs awarded the plaintiff in the discrimination case $267,000 in legal fees.
In June 2018, Childs temporarily blocked DOE’s plan to cancel the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at Savannah River. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit quickly reversed Childs’ decision in the biggest case concerning the weapons complex that ever crossed her desk.
In February 2020, Childs formally dismissed the case given the appeals court ruling. The department has since decided to retool the planned mixed-oxide fuel plant into the Savannah River Plutonium Processing facility, which sometime next decade is supposed to produce 50 pits a year for refurbished nuclear weapons.
President Biden has previously promised to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court and Childs was one of several candidates floated in early media coverage. Others include: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who already sits on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger; Judge Holly Thomas, recently confirmed by the Senate to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi with the Seventh U.S. Court of Appeals and Sherrilyn Ifill, a law professor and president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
While Childs might be on the short list, it is not yet clear who is the early frontrunner.
Published reports say that Childs enjoys the backing of Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the Democratic Party’s Majority Whip in the House of Representatives and a key political ally of the president — often credited with helping Biden win, with 49% in a multi-candidate field, the South Carolina primary in February 2020 at a time when Biden’s primary campaign was struggling.
