Over three-quarters of Americans say race and gender should not play a factor in President Joe Biden’s future nominee for the Supreme Court, an ABC News/Ipsos poll showed.
The poll found that 76% of those surveyed believe the president should “consider all possible nominees” to replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who is expected to retire at the end of the current term. Only 23% believe Biden should only consider black women to appoint as the Court nominee.
The poll surveyed 510 adults between Jan. 28-29 consisting of a 4.9% margin of error. (RELATED: Top Legal Ally Says Kamala Harris Can’t Break A Tie For Biden’s SCOTUS Nominee)
During his presidential candidacy, Biden pledged to nominate a black woman to the Court. He recently said nominating a black woman is “long overdue” in a statement vowing that the nominee will also have “extraordinary qualifications, character and integrity.”
Question: To fill the opening on the U.S. Supreme Court, do you think Joe Biden should:
Consider all possible nominees: 76%
Consider only nominees who are black women as he has pledged to do: 23%
—ABC News / Ipsos poll conducted January 28 & January 29https://t.co/VCc6FJCCuS
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) January 30, 2022
The three likely candidates to be considered are Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, California Supreme Court associate Justice Leondra Kruger, and Judge J. Michelle Childs of the U.S. District Court for South Carolina.
The poll further showed that 43% surveyed believe that justices rule based on partisan views, while 38% believe they rule on the basis of the law. The remaining 18% answered that they are unsure and 1% skipped the question altogether.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Biden should pick a nominee who is “faithful to the law and the Constitution,” while fulfilling their duty to interpret the law and understand the separation of powers during a Friday press conference.
“When you’re dealing with picks for the Supreme Court, you want people who are going to be faithful to the law and the Constitution, and understand how our constitutional system was designed to have separate powers. The job of the judicial branch is to apply the law and Constitution. It’s not to rewrite the law and Constitution,” the governor said.