Potential U.S. Supreme Court nominees hail from Miami, South Carolina and California

President Joe Biden promised during his campaign to nominate a Black woman as a future U.S. Supreme Court nominee. It’s a promise he’s reiterated since liberal justice Stephen Breyer announced he would retire. Here are a few of the leading names on the short list to replace Breyer.

▪ Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, serves as a judge on Washington, D.C.’s U.S. Court of Appeals, long considered a springboard for the nation’s highest court.

Brown Jackson was raised in South Miami-Dade and was a standout student at Palmetto High. She graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. She went on to clerk for Breyer, vice-chair the U.S. Sentencing Commission and preside over a U.S. district court in D.C. before the Senate confirmed her to the appeals court in June.

▪ Leondra Kruger, 45, currently serves as a California Supreme Court justice. She grew up in Southern California, graduated from Harvard and Yale Law School before going on to clerk for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

Kruger also spent time as an assistant with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Solicitor General, and was nominated in 2014 to California’s highest court. Just 38 when she was nominated, Kruger became only the second Black woman to serve on the California Supreme Court.

▪ J. Michelle Childs, 55, serves as a U.S. district judge in South Carolina. Childs was raised in South Carolina, graduated from the University of South Florida before earning a law degree from the University of South Carolina — a public-school education touted by her chief supporter, House Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the highest-ranking Black member of Congress.

She practiced at one of South Carolina’s largest law firms, worked in two stints at state agencies, served as a state court judge and was appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2010.

This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 6:00 AM.