Republican Senator says Supreme Court pick will be ‘beneficiary’ of affirmative action

Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican, told a local radio station on Friday that President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee would likely be a “beneficiary” of affirmative action.

The White House is pushing back on those comments after Biden said he would fulfill his promise of selecting a black woman to fill a future vacancy on the court. 

Responding to Wicker’s statement, White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates noted that the Republican had no problems with the fact that former President Donald Trump said he would nominate a woman to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing.

“When the previous president followed through on his own promise to place a woman on the Supreme Court, Senator Wicker said, ‘I have five granddaughters, the oldest one is 10. I think Justice Amy Coney Barrett will prove to be an inspiration to these five granddaughters and to my grown daughters.’”

Bates continued in his statement to say, “We hope Senator Wicker will give President Biden’s nominee the same consideration he gave to then-Judge Barrett.”

During an appearance on a local radio show, Wicker suggested that Biden’s choice to pick the first black woman to be a Supreme Court justice would conflict with affirmative action cases that are currently before that court.

“The irony is that the Supreme Court is at the very same time hearing cases about this sort of affirmative racial discrimination while adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of quota,” he said. “The majority of the court may be saying writ large that it’s unconstitutional. We’ll see how that irony works out,” Wicker added, saying Biden’s choice “will probably not get a single Republican vote.” 

But fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said on Sunday that he supports diversifying U.S. institutions such that they “look like America.”

The senator said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” “Put me in the camp of making sure the court and other institutions look like America. You know, we make a real effort as Republicans to recruit women and people of color to make the party look more like America. Affirmative action is picking somebody not as well qualified for past wrongs.”

The scuffle about the need for a new justice comes after a formal announcement of Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement.