It's Time for President Biden to Consider Other Future Supreme Court Candidates: Here's Who They Might Be

     President Biden has chosen Ketanji Brown Jackson as the next justice to the Supreme Court. She is an excellent choice, a lifelong jurist with progressive values and a commitment, like that of Justice Breyer, to make the law work for people. Historically, she will be the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, fulfilling a major campaign promise and cementing the three-member liberal minority on the Supreme Court for at least the next 15 to 30 years.

     President Biden has made a major commitment to making the federal bench more diverse. He has appointed more AAPI women, more Native American women, and more black women than any president in history, appointed the first Muslim men and women to the federal bench, and is on track to end the disparities for AAPI men and women as well as black women and women in general and appoint more Asian judges, more black judges, and more LGBT2SQIA+ judges than any president in history.

     Democrats appointed the first Jewish man and woman and now the first black man and woman to the Supreme Court as well as the first Hispanic woman. Given this, if President Biden is given a miracle chance to appoint a second Supreme Court justice, likely to replace Samuel Alito or Clarence Thomas, it makes sense to appoint the first Hispanic man, one who shares a commitment to a more liberal and humane criminal justice system: that person is Gabriel P. Sanchez. A middle-aged (young in judge years, which is what is needed in considering a Supreme Court appointment) California appellate judge who expanded the state's "second chance" laws drastically as a state attorney, he was appointed by President Biden to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021, which means he is an appellate judge who has already gone through the vetting process and will be easier to confirm.

     Assuming there's a third opening, there would be no shortage of qualified jurists. The appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson will mean that there will be four women on the Supreme Court, more than at any point in U.S. history. The appointment of Sanchez would mean that that number would remain constant. Any third jurist, therefore, should be a woman, who would give the Supreme Court a female majority for the first time in history. No Native Americans, no LGBT2SQIA+ Americans, and no Asian Americans have served on the Supreme Court. This seems like somethings that needs to changed.

     This is just a vision for the future, a what-if. For now, there's an exciting Supreme Court confirmation process coming up.