Progressives criticize J. Michelle Childs, a potential Biden Supreme Court pick

President Biden’s potential nomination of Judge J. Michelle Childs to the Supreme Court is giving him another opportunity to either try for a bipartisan victory or heed the wishes of the left of his party.

Childs was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina by Barack Obama in 2009. The 55-year-old jurist is a favorite of Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., who pushed Biden to make the pledge to select a Black woman and whose endorsement helped the president salvage his Democratic primary campaign. Across the aisle, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has also praised Childs.

"I can't think of a better person for President Biden to consider for the Supreme Court than Michelle Childs," Graham said on CBS last month. "She has wide support in our state. She is considered to be a fair-minded, highly gifted jurist. She's one of the most decent people I've ever met."

Graham and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., have both hinted that Childs could earn their vote, which would ensure an easy confirmation. Democrats have 50 votes in the Senate, meaning there is a thin margin for error in confirming Biden’s pick.

As a candidate for president, Biden touted his ability to work with Republicans, campaigning on his ability to unify the country. In recent weeks, his White House has been celebrating a bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed during the summer even as his larger domestic agenda remains stalled in Congress.

But although the South Carolina delegation has praised her, Childs’s résumé has drawn scrutiny from many on the left, with a particular focus on her time at a corporate law firm defending management in cases involving discrimination and labor law violations.

Our Revolution, a progressive group that sprung from Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns, has been critical of Childs, while two Democratic congressmen are circulating a letter stating that “for far too long, the Supreme Court has been dominated by pro-corporate justices” and that “labor-minded jurists bring crucial knowledge and experience to the bench.”

Perhaps most important for Biden, who has billed himself as “the most pro-union president,” Childs has been sharply criticized by some labor leaders.

“There’s a long list to choose from,” Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, told the Washington Post last week. “That’s why it’s great that President Biden can pass on a management-side lawyer like Childs, who has argued disdainfully against workers’ rights in favor of several other candidates who have been in the trenches with workers and have a proven record of upholding worker rights.”

Childs’s supporters have pointed to her work with the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission and her public school education. She attended the University of South Florida for her undergraduate degree and the University of South Carolina for law school. If nominated and confirmed, she would be one of only two current justices who didn’t attend Harvard or Yale.

Childs picked up an unlikely ally over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial board. In an op-ed published Friday evening titled “Vetoing a Black Woman Judge,” the paper’s board wrote: “A funny thing is happening on the way to President Biden’s first Supreme Court nomination. The opposition to one of the mooted black woman favorites is coming from the left, not the right.”

“Whatever happened to diversity, as progressives try to disqualify Judge J. Michelle Childs?” it added, although none of the appeals from the left for a non-Childs option have called on Biden to break his promise to appoint a Black woman for the role.

The decision will give Biden an opportunity to either try for a potentially easier Supreme Court confirmation or to attempt to firm up his position with the left of the party. While the White House can pin the blame for Democrats’ legislative failures on centrist Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., progressives have been frustrated by the White House on a number of issues where the executive branch has more control.

Liberals have complained about a lack of movement on student loan debt forgiveness and reforming marijuana policy, while immigration advocates have decried the continuation of a Trump-era border policy. Last year, the White House initially tried to keep a record-low cap on refugees in place until an outcry from across the Democratic caucus led to a reversal. Biden has seen his approval rating steadily decline among Democrats, slipping from 92 percent last summer to 76 percent in a recent Pew Research survey.

Many progressives have put their support behind Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, a former public defender who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and was considered an early favorite for the nomination when news of Breyer’s retirement broke. When Jackson was confirmed to her current position last year, she received support from every Democratic senator and three Republicans: Graham, as well as Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

On Sunday, Murkowski indicated that she could vote for Biden’s Supreme Court pick. “I would be honored to be able to support an exceptional African-American woman,” the Republican moderate told CNN.

Biden has said he hopes to announce his nomination by the end of February.