Candidates for U.S. Supreme Court Justice

Speculation abounds on the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice, but something we know for sure: it will be a Black woman. President Biden promised to fill the spot with a Black woman should a position open up during his presidency.

Several women are in the running, including Judge Ketanji Brown, shown here. Many candidates have degrees from Harvard and Yale, serve as judges, and have experience as law clerks for past and current justices.

The selection process will be interesting to watch. Like any employment situation, the candidates will be interviewed, but unlike business employment situations, they will be vetted under a microscope. After the president nominates a candidate, the Senate votes, by majority, whether to confirm the nomination. We’ll see to what extent race and gender come into the conversations.

The Supreme Court website describes the job qualifications:

The Constitution does not specify qualifications for Justices such as age, education, profession, or native-born citizenship. A Justice does not have to be a lawyer or a law school graduate, but all Justices have been trained in the law. Many of the 18th and 19th century Justices studied law under a mentor because there were few law schools in the country.

Today, it would be quite unusual for a justice to lack a law degree, and the selection process favors certain schools. Of the nine current justices, four graduated from Harvard Law School and four from Yale. Amy Coney Barrett, the most recent addition, graduated from Notre Dame.