By Brandon Patterson

President Biden committed last week to nominating a Black woman to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer. Breyer, the oldest sitting Supreme Court justice at 83, will step down at the end of the current Supreme Court term in June after 28 years on the bench. His replacement will mark the first appointment to the Supreme Court since former President Trump’s appointment of three conservative justices. Biden said he would announce a pick by the end of February.

His appointment won’t change the 5-4 conservative lean of the court, but it will mark an historic first, with a Black woman elevated to the nation’s highest court. Here’s a look at six Black women on Biden’s short list for the nomination.

Ketanji Brown Jackson

Jackson, 51, currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, considered the second-most powerful federal court in the nation, after being appointed to it by Biden just last year. She graduated from both Harvard College and Harvard Law and clerked for Justice Breyer early in her career. As a judge, she’s ruled on high-profile cases including a case involving subpoenas related to the Trump White House. Prior to becoming a judge, Jackson served as an assistant federal public defender and as vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, where she led the commission in reducing sentences for federal drug offenders.

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Leondra Kruger

Kruger, 45, currently sits on the California Supreme Court and was the youngest person appointed to the court in 2014. A native of South Pasadena, she is a Harvard graduate and was the first Black woman editor of the Yale Law Journal. Kruger has extensive experience with the U.S. Supreme Court, having served as a clerk for the former Justice John Paul Stevens and serving as acting deputy solicitor general during the Obama administration. She represented the government in 12 cases before the Supreme Court while at the Solicitor General’s office.

Sherrilyn Ifill

Ifill, 59, a celebrated civil rights attorney, has led the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund since 2013. She has never served as a judge before, making her nomination less likely than others. Ifill began her career at the ACLU, then went on to work on voting rights issues at the legal defense fund. She has taught at the University of Maryland School of Law for over 20 years. Ifill is a graduate of Vassar College and NYU Law. Last year, Ifill was among the group of lawyers selected by Biden to study potential changes to the make-up of the Supreme Court.

Candace Jackson-Akiwumi

Jackson-Akiwumi was confirmed as a federal judge in Chicago’s Seventh Circuit last spring where she is the only person of color on the bench. She holds degrees from Princeton and Yale and served as a federal public defender in Illinois for 10 years. She is only the third federal appellate judge ever to have spent a majority of her time as an attorney as a criminal defense attorney.

J. Michelle Childs

Childs currently sits on South Carolina’s federal court. She was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by Biden in December, though her nomination is still pending. She’s a graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law and is an expert in labor and employment law. Before becoming a judge, she served as deputy director of the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation. Childs’ nomination is considered a long shot, but she has a critical ally in House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, who helped deliver the state for Biden as he pursued the 2022 presidential nomination. Childs has also been praised as a fair judge by former President Trump and Senator Lindsay Graham.

Holly Thomas

Thomas, 43, was appointed to the federal bench in the Ninth Circuit, which includes San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area, by Biden in January after serving on the Los Angeles Superior Court. She was born in San Diego and holds degrees from Stanford and Yale. Thomas also has an advocacy background. She was an appellate attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Sources for this report include the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Vox News, CNN, Bloomberg Law and Alliance for Justice.

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