Black Women’s Groups Say They Feel Jilted By Obama’s SCOTUS Pick

Avis Jones-DeWeever, executive director of the National Council of Negro Women, addresses an audience of black elected officials, business people and community leaders during the White House African American Policy ... Avis Jones-DeWeever, executive director of the National Council of Negro Women, addresses an audience of black elected officials, business people and community leaders during the White House African American Policy Forum in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, June 13, 2012. A number of federal officials from several agencies discussed issues such as nutrition, poverty, housing and home ownership as well as how job creation affect black people specifically. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) MORE LESS
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Black women’s groups said Wednesday they feel President Barack Obama jilted them by choosing someone other than a black woman as his newest nominee for the Supreme Court.

Obama chose federal appeals court Chief Judge Merrick Garland, a white man, to replace deceased Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Garland is the third Supreme Court nominee of Obama’s presidency.

“The fact that he would once again look over black women for this specific appointment is an absolute slap in the face to his top supporters,” said Avis A. Jones-DeWeever, founder of the Exceptional Leadership Institute for Women.

Minority voters have been the most devoted supporters of Obama’s two presidential campaigns.Black women, in particular, had the highest turnout among all racial and ethnic groups in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, and they had hoped Obama would nominate a black woman to the high court.

Besides Garland, Obama’s short list included federal appeals court judges Paul Watford, who is black, and Sri Srinivasan, who would have been the court’s first Asian-American and the first Hindu.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama selected Garland “for one reason and one reason only, and that is simply that he believes that Chief Judge Garland is the best person in America to do that job.”

But many may be disappointed Obama did not choose a “judge who can add to diversity on a court that still fails to represent the richness we see in our communities,” said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.

“Having racial diversity, in particular, has always led to better outcomes that are more representative of our communities, especially given the demographics in this country,” said Lakshmi Sridaran, director of national policy and advocacy for South Asian Americans Leading Together, an advocacy group.

Over his two terms in office, Obama has chosen black women for high-ranking positions in his administration: Attorney General Loretta Lynch and United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice.

The eight-member Supreme Court has three women — Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Obama’s previous nominees, Sonia Sotomayor, who is Latina, and Elena Kagan, who is white. Justice Clarence Thomas, nominated by President George H.W. Bush in 1991, is the court’s only African-American.

Black women may feel especially rejected, considering their large turnout in 2008 (68 percent) and 2012 (70 percent). The vast majority of them, 96 percent, voted for Obama in 2012, according to exit poll data.

By selecting Garland, Obama “does not give the respect to his most ardent supporters,” said Barbara Arnwine, executive director at the Transformative Justice Coalition. “The passion you saw around Sotomayor you will not see around this pick,” Arnwine said.

Jones-DeWeever said black women might have been inspired to lobby the Senate daily to get a blackfemale nominee confirmed, as they did during Lynch’s confirmation process. But now, Jones-DeWeever said, “I’m not motivated to lift one finger to get his nomination through.”

Janice Mathis, head of the National Council of Negro Women, said such disappointment likely will not affect black women’s participation in this fall’s presidential election.

Black women “are extremely pragmatic voters and I think when they look at the situation the activist community will support the president’s effort to fill this vacancy,” Mathis said.

Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable Public Policy Network, said her group will support Garland, but “we have and will continue to advocate for the next Supreme Court vacancy to be filled by an exceptional black woman.”

___

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Washington and Deepti Hajela in New York City contributed to this report.

Jesse J. Holland covers race and ethnicity for The Associated Press. Contact him at jholland @ ap.org, on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland and on Facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/jessejholland .

Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Notable Replies

  1. I’m guessing that most exceptional potential candidates would not care to walk into that mess.

  2. We all know that race and gender are the only things that matter in a judicial nominee, not a candidate’s record or judicial temperament, only race and gender.

    With racists to the left of me and racists to the right of me, maybe I should vote my skin color and gonads in November; you know, choose the candidate who isn’t targeting me.

  3. Did they suggest anyone? Also, stop the whining, there are a multitude of different ethnic, racial and religious types not in SCOTUS. This is just pure nonsense.

    I suppose though that the fact that Obama picked a black female as the TOP LEO in the USA is not relevant? And for the record, Obama did not pick her because she is black or female. He picker her because she is a bad ass prosecutor who is extremely qualified for the position.

    And Lynch can have the SCOTUS post if she wanted it. But for now she says she wants to stay as AG. And I am sure Hillary will keep her on.

  4. This is the AP looking for some “controversy” that will get people to click. The quotes in the article were a big nothingburger. I understand the concerns of the groups named in the article, and I share their opinion that more diversity on the court would be a positive thing.

    But as Bill Maher noted last week, when Barack Fucking Obama becomes the enemy of your progressive cause, then you’ve lost the forest for the trees.

    The forest in this case is, nobody nominated by Obama is going to be confirmed. This nomination is almost a ritual sacrifice, useful only to further expose the hypocrisy and obstructionism of the GOP. If he’s never going to get his nominee confirmed, why not nominate a person widely-respected on both sides - and even suggested as a nominee by the GOP - so that the damage to them is maximized?

    When Hillary or Bernie is elected president, she/he can nominate a more liberal - and possibly even black and female - justice. Fuck that idea of a lame-duck confirmation of Garland, too. Obama should withdraw the nomination the day after the election.

  5. There are few “suitable” candidates to suggest, since the Republicans have been blocking almost all Federal judicial nominations for years. You need to increase diversity in the judiciary to “grow your own” candidates with stature.

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