DeSantis Says SCOTUS Nominee Should Be ‘Faithful To The Constitution’

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said President Joe Biden’s future Supreme Court nominee should “be faithful to the law and the Constitution” at a Friday press conference in Broward County.

“When you’re dealing with picks for the Supreme Court, you want people who are going to be faithful to the law and the Constitution, and understand how our constitutional system was designed to have separate powers,” DeSantis began. “The job of the judicial branch is to apply the law and Constitution. It’s not to rewrite the law and Constitution.”

“Judges who understand that … have a certain amount of humility to understand the proper role. Doesn’t mean you can’t be active in deciding cases properly before you, and if you have to come down on the constitutional side, you have to do it and do it forcefully,” the governor continued. “But you’re not a philosopher-king. And you’re not hovering over the entire political system and basically being a super-legislator.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) says Justice Breyer’s SCOTUS replacement has to have “humility”:

“You’re not a philosopher king.” pic.twitter.com/cmttpjaCTw

— The Recount (@therecount) January 28, 2022

Biden is currently in preparation to pick a nominee to replace Associate Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who intends to retire at the end of the Court’s current term. During his presidential campaign, the president vowed to nominate a black woman to fill a vacated seat. (RELATED: Top Biden Legal Ally Says Kamala Harris Can’t Break A Tie For Biden’s SCOTUS Nominee) 

The president said nominating the first black woman to the Court is “long overdue,” the Associated Press reported. The decision is expected to be made at the end of February.

“I’ve made no decisions except one: The person I will nominate will be somebody of extraordinary qualifications, character and integrity,” the president said. “And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It’s long overdue.”

The three most likely considered candidates are Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, California Supreme Court associate justice Leondra Kruger, and Judge J. Michelle Childs of the U.S. District Court for South Carolina.