Durbin: Black Women Practicing Law at the Highest Level to Be Considered for SCOTUS Is ‘Extraordinary’

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that black women “who have achieved the level of success in practice of law and jurisprudence” to be considered for the Supreme Court have done it against great odds which means they are “extraordinary.”

Durbin defended President Biden’s promise to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.

Durbin said, “I remind them to look at history and recall it was Ronald Reagan who announced he was going to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court and he did, Sandra Day O’Connor, and it was Donald Trump who announced he would replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a woman nominee as well. This is not the first time that a president has signaled what they are looking for in a nominee.”

He added, “I would just say the bottom line is this in terms of African American women. If they have achieved the level of success in practice of law and jurisprudence, they’ve done it against great odds. They’re extraordinary people. Usually, the first of anything in the United States turns out to be extraordinary in their background. The same is true there. They’re all going to face the same close scrutiny. This is a lifetime appointment to the highest court in the land, and I just hope that those who are critical of the president’s selection aren’t doing it for personal reasons.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN