Biden accused of hypocrisy for filibuster against Black female jurist’s nomination

President Biden wasn’t always a supporter of Black women on the federal bench.

While serving in the Senate, Mr. Biden filibustered the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia — twice — before she was finally approved in 2005 after a two-year fight.

His staunch opposition to Judge Brown, the daughter of an Alabama sharecropper, prompted allegations of hypocrisy after he reiterated last week his vow to nominate a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court following Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement announcement.

“If he wants to unite the country, Biden should nominate Janice Rogers Brown,” tweeted Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican.

A former California Supreme Court justice, Judge Brown was nominated by President George W. Bush and retired from the court in 2017. She was seen as a potential Supreme Court pick for the 2005 opening that was ultimately filled by Justice Samuel Alito.

Mr. Hawley described Judge Brown, now 72, as a “committed constitutionalist who is also an African-American woman. Sadly, Biden personally filibustered her historic nomination to DC Circuit twice when he was in [the] Senate. Now is the time to make amends.”

If he wants to unite the country, Biden should nominate Janice Rogers Brown. Committed constitutionalist who is also an African-American woman. Sadly, Biden personally filibustered her historic nomination to DC Circuit twice when he was in Senate. Now is the time to make amends

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) January 28, 2022

Mr. Biden voted in 2003 and 2005 to block efforts by Senate Republicans, who held the majority, to confirm the Brown nomination.

During the 2005 floor debate, the Delaware Democrat gave an impassioned defense of the filibuster and against the “nuclear option,” a speech reprinted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee on its website in March.

“The American people will soon learn that Justice Janice Rogers Brown, one of the nominees that we are not allowing to be passed, one of the ostensible reasons for this nuclear option being employed has decried the Supreme Court’s — quote — ‘socialist revolution of 1930,’” said Mr. Biden in his May 23, 2005, remarks.

He also said that “I think this is the single-most significant vote any one of us will cast in my 32 years in the Senate, and I suspect the senator [West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd] would agree with that.”

Fox News host Dana Perino, who served in the Bush White House, said that Democrats privately told media outlets that they opposed the Brown nomination because “they didn’t want the Republicans to have a shot at nominating the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.”

“I would just like to take a quick trip down memory lane — if Democrats really wanted to see a Black woman elevated to the Supreme Court, why did they block Janice Rogers Brown back during the Bush administration?” she asked Monday on Fox’s “The Five.”

Mr. Biden’s decision to pick a Supreme Court justice based on race and sex isn’t polling well.

An ABC News/Ipsos Poll released Sunday found that 76% of Americans want the president to consider “all possible nominees,” while 23% want him to honor his 2020 campaign pledge.

Megan Wold, a constitutional lawyer and former law clerk to Justice Alito, said that Mr. Biden should consider eminently qualified Black women “alongside every other eminently qualified potential nominee.”

She added that “Biden’s pledge makes him a hypocrite because no one has done more than Biden to thwart black women nominees to the federal bench,” citing his opposition to the Brown pick.

“As a United States Senator, Biden considered an eminently qualified black woman for appointment to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals,” said Ms. Wold in a statement. “That was Janice Rogers Brown and then-Senator Biden filibustered her — twice. President Biden should apologize to Judge Janice Rogers Brown before he attempts to play identity politics with this Supreme Court nomination.”

Justice Breyer, 83, plans to step down at the end of the court’s current term, which would be late June or early July.