CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s U.S. senators are waiting to see whom President Joe Biden will nominate to replace Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
Breyer will leave the high court at the end of its current term; the justice, a nominee of President Bill Clinton, began serving on the court in August 1994. Breyer has been a liberal voice that has shown a willingness to work with colleagues.
Biden met Breyer in the 1970s when Biden, then a senator, served on the Senate Judiciary Committee as Breyer worked for Sen. Ted Kennedy. Biden was the committee’s chairman when lawmakers confirmed Breyer his current position.
“Everyone knows that Stephen Breyer has been an exemplary justice,” Biden said during an announcement at the White House. “Fair to the parties before him, courteous to his colleagues, careful in his reasoning.”
Following reports of Breyer’s retirement on Wednesday, Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., expressed a readiness to review Biden’s future nominee and their handling of legal questions.
“Evaluating Supreme Court nominees is an important constitutional duty, and one that I take seriously as a U.S. Senator,” Capito said. “I will carefully consider President Biden’s nominee according to their experience and ability to make unbiased decisions based on the text and original meaning of our Constitution, not on their personal opinions.”
Manchin struck a similar chord in an individual statement, noting the importance of reviewing a nominee’s opinions.
“Justice Breyer has dedicated much of his life to upholding the rule of law and we are grateful for his service. I wish him a happy and fulfilling retirement,” he said.
“I take my Constitutional responsibility to advise and consent on a nominee to the Supreme Court very seriously. I look forward to meeting with and evaluating the qualifications of President Biden’s nominee to fill this Supreme Court vacancy.”
Manchin said on Thursday’s “MetroNews Talkline” he could support a nominee with more liberal positions than his own.
“It’s not going to change the makeup of the court. The court right now is pretty much a 6-3 court. No matter what the philosophical beliefs of this person may be, that’s not going to change the decisions or the makeup of it,” he said.
“It’s not too hard to get more liberal than me, so it would not bother me to support a person who was sound in their thought process [and] who was sound in their disbursement of justice and the rule of law. When I was governor, I put a lot of robes on judges, and they were much different from me ideologically.”
The Senate changed its rules in 2017 to allow a simple majority vote for confirming Supreme Court nominations rather than the necessary 60 votes for advancing legislation. The current Senate is split between the Democratic and Republican caucuses, but Democrats control the chamber given Vice President Kamala Harris delivering a tie-breaking vote.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., warned Biden against listening to “the radical left” on possible nominees, citing the divided Senate.
“Looking ahead — the American people elected a Senate that is evenly split at 50-50. To the degree that President Biden received a mandate, it was to govern from the middle, steward our institutions, and unite America,” McConnell said Thursday.
Manchin supported Neil Gorsuch in April 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in October 2018, but he voted against confirming Amy Coney Barrett because of the proximity of the nomination to the 2020 election.
“It was just hypocritical to put her up one week before [the election] after they held up Merrick Garland for a year,” he said, referencing Republicans’ refusal to consider President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee in the spring of 2016.
Capito voted to confirm the last three Supreme Court justices.
Biden aims to announce a nominee by the end of February, noting he will review candidates’ backgrounds and legal writings. He promised someone with “extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity,” as well as a pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.
“It is long overdue, in my view,” the president said. “I made that commitment during the campaign for president, and I will keep that commitment.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday the Senate would have “a fair process that moves quickly so we can confirm President Biden’s nominee to fill Justice Breyer’s seat as soon as possible.”