In a radio interview yesterday, Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker said the presence of an African-American woman on The Supreme Court would be "a beneficiary" of affirmative action:
The irony is that the Supreme Court is at the very time hearing cases about this sort of affirmative racial discrimination while adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of quota.
Wicker is referring to challenges to the affirmative action policies of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina which the court plans to hear. But by that reasoning then Amy Coney Barrett could be construed as "a beneficiary of this sort of quota". After all, former President Trump said he was going to appoint a woman to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg after her death in September 2020. "I will be putting forth a nominee next week. It will be a woman," said Trump at the time. For his part, Wicker called Barrett "an inspiration to his granddaughters." So why isn't it possible that Biden's pick can't be an inspiration to Wicker's granddaughters?
Wicker's reasoning could also be applied to Clarence Thomas. The first President Bush nominated Thomas to replace Thurgood Marshall in 1991. President Biden's appointment to the SCOTUS will be only the third African-American and only the fifth female ever to serve on that body. Yet Wicker is essentially echoing Ilya Shapiro when he declared Biden's selection would be "lesser black woman" "who would always have an asterisk attached".
However, Wicker may be right to say "this new justice will probably not get a single Republican vote." With this in mind, it will be interesting to see what happens should Biden either appoint Tiffany Cunningham or Wilhelmina Wright to the seat. When Biden appointed Cunningham to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals last year, she earned the support of 13 Republican Senators including Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and even John Cornyn. In 2016, then President Obama appointed Wright to the U.S. Federal District Court of Minnesota she also earned the support of 13 GOP Senators including then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Alas, Wicker voted against both Cunningham and Wright.
If Biden appoints either Cunningham or Wright then the Republican Senators who previously voted for them will have some explaining to do if they don't see fit to vote for them again.
As for Senator Wicker, he has explained himself very clearly.
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