In recent public statements, the two South Carolina Republicans in the Senate sounded receptive to the idea of President Joe Biden nominating a federal judge from their state, U.S. District Court Judge Michelle Childs, to the U.S. Supreme Court.
At the same time, however, some labor unions told The Washington Post recently Childs is not their choice to fulfill Biden’s campaign pledge to select a black woman to serve on the high court.
In a Wednesday New York Post article, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) the only black Republican in the Senate, called Childs a strong candidate. “She certainly has been received with great acclaim from South Carolinians on both sides of the aisle,” Scott said. “I think she has a strong record and would be a strong candidate.
Scott made his remarks days after South Carolina’s senior senator spoke well of the possible Biden nominee on a national Sunday morning news program.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday he is “a big admirer” of Childs and believes the U.S. Supreme Court could benefit from someone, like the federal court judge from South Carolina, outside the usual Ivy League feeder system.
“I can’t think of a better person,” Graham said at one point. Childs has presided over several Department of Energy and nuclear cases since becoming a federal judge in 2010 including a recent decision upholding a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees of the management and operations contract for the Savannah River Site.
On Sunday’s program, host Margaret Brennan quoted Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) as saying Childs, a candidate to succeed retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, would win votes from South Carolina’s two Republican senators, Graham and Scott.
Any GOP support for Biden’s eventual high court nominee would be big in a Senate split 50-50 along party lines — particularly with the past week’s news that Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) has suffered a stroke and might not be back in Wasington, D.C. by the end of the month. Biden has targeted the end of February as when he plans to publicly announce his nominee selection.
While declining to disclose how he might vote, Graham described Childs as extremely well-respected. The South Carolina Republican proceeded to reel off a portion of Childs’ educational and work background and concluded by saying he is “a big admirer” of Childs. Brennan replied that it sounded like a fairly “glowing” assessment.
But at the same time, The Washington Post reported Wednesday some leaders of organized labor question if Childs is sufficiently “pro-worker.” For example, the article quotes Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, as endorsing selection of a black woman to the high court, but saying Biden should “can pass on a management-side lawyer like Childs.”
The article said the labor union dissatisfaction stems largely from Childs’ work with a Columbia, S.C. law firm before she became a judge. Clyburn and a White House spokesperson defended Childs as pro-worker in the Post article.
Biden has not yet nominated anyone to succeed Breyer, who only formally announced his retirement Jan. 27.
In the setup to the Graham interview, the CBS program seemed to characterize Childs as the No. 3 candidate at this early stage behind Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Biden nominee who was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in June, as well as California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, who argued a dozen cases before the Supreme Court while working in the Office of the Solicitor General.
Brown Jackson has degrees from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Kruger has degrees from Harvard College and the Yale School.
Although Childs has already been nominated by the Biden administration to serve alongside Brown Jackson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, media accounts tend to characterize the Childs’ resume as a bit less elite and more everywoman.
According to the South Carolina Bar Association, Childs previously served as a South Carolina At-Large Circuit Court judge, with responsibility for administering a business court. She has also worked as a workers’ compensation commissioner in the state. She holds degrees from the University of South Florida and the University of South Carolina School of Law.
Senate consideration of Childs for the appeals court position is reportedly being held up while the administration takes a look at her for the high court vacancy.
