Three Black women who could be the next Supreme Court Justice

During his campaign President Biden promised to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. With the upcoming retirement of Justice Stephen G. Breyer, Biden now has a chance to keep that promise.

Fortunately there are several qualified candidates, so many in fact that there is almost no excuse not to pick a Black woman. While this article focuses on three perceived favorites, there are several more qualified candidates such as Michelle Alexander,Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court Cheri Beasley,United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Kristen Clarke, and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina Anita Earls.

Early discussions about a successor are focusing on U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger.

Ketanji Brown Jackson, a 51-year-old judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit who graduated from Harvard Law School and clerked for Justice Breyer, and Leondra R. Kruger, a 45-year-old justice on the California Supreme Court who graduated from Yale Law School and clerked for former Justice John Paul Stevens.

J. Michelle Childs, who has been nominated but not yet confirmed to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is another option. Childs, currently a federal trial court judge in South Carolina, is a favorite of Clyburn, who made a crucial endorsement of Biden just before that state’s presidential primary.

Leondra Kruger, 45, a justice on the California Supreme Court. A graduate of Harvard and Yale’s law school, she served as a law clerk on the high court before arguing a dozen cases before the court as a lawyer for the federal government.

President Biden nominate Vanessa Avery to run U.S. Attorney's office in Connecticut

President Joe Biden has nominated a diverse group of six attorneys to run for U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country, their latest picks for top law enforcement positions. The nominees announced by the White House include Vanessa Avery.

If confirmed, Avery would be the first African American woman to serve as U.S. attorney in Connecticut.

Avery is a former federal prosecutor who is now a an associate state attorney general in the Connecticut attorney general's office, to be the U.S. attorney there. Since 2021, she has served as the chief of the Division of Enforcement and Public Protection at the state attorney general's office. She was an associate state attorney general and worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Connecticut.

From 2004 to 2005, Avery served as a trial attorney at the U.S, Department of Justice in the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Civil Division, according to the White House.

She received a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1999 and an undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1996.

Rep. Terri Sewell Statement on Federal Court Blocking Alabama Congressional Map

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) released the following statement after a federal court blocked Alabama’s new congressional map in favor of the creation of a second majority-minority district:

“Monumental news from the court! Increasing political representation of Black Alabamians is exactly what John Lewis and the Foot Soldiers who marched across the bridge in my hometown of Selma fought for. It is the reason why I am the lead sponsor of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and have led efforts to get it signed into law.

“I am carefully reviewing the opinion and I look forward to working with the Alabama Legislature to fulfill the court’s mandate.”

Federal judges block Alabama’s congressional redistricting maps that dilute the Black vote

The Alabama Legislature’s redistricting plan for 2022 will not take effect for congressional races after a panel of three federal court judges found the map dilutes the voting power of Black residents and blocked the proposal.

Two separate federal lawsuits were filed against the redistricting map on claims that it violated the Voting Rights Act by packing Black Alabamians into a small number of districts — including one congressional district, Alabama’s seventh, represented by U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham — and limiting their influence on state elections.

Blacks comprise 27 percent of Alabama’s population yet only constitute one of the state’s seven congressional districts — or 14 percent of the districts. Alabama’s 7th Congressional District was first drawn in 1992.

The panel of three judges from federal courts in Alabama found that the plaintiffs are “substantially likely to establish” that the map violates the VRA, adding that “Black voters have less opportunity than other Alabamians to elect candidates of their choice to Congress.”

The Alabama Legislature has a variety of alternative redistricting maps they can consider, the judges noted, and said a new map “will need to include two districts in which Black voters either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it.”

The panel said it would provide the Legislature with an expert to redraw the lines if Montgomery can’t come up with another map in two weeks.

“We are confident that the Legislature can accomplish its task,” the judges said, pointing out that lawmakers came up with the blocked map “in a matter of days” last year.

“Black people drove a disproportionate share of Alabama’s population growth. Throughout last year, Black Alabamians publicly called on the Legislature to recognize this reality and sought equal representation in Congress,” said NAACP Legal Defense Fund Senior Counsel Deuel Ross in a statement. “The state ignored these demands, but we are deeply gratified that the unanimous court found that Black voters deserve full representation now. We look forward to working with the Legislature to ensure that Black voters are fairly represented in any remedial map.”

[SOURCE: MSN]

Police open criminal investigation into Lauren Smith-Fields’ death

More than a month-and-a-half after the death of Lauren Smith-Fields, the 23-year-old college student who died in her Bridgeport, Conn. apartment after meeting up with an older man earlier that evening, Bridgeport police announced Tuesday they are opening a criminal investigation of her death.