WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden praised Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who made his retirement official at the White House on Thursday, vowing that his choice to replace him will be a Black woman and that he plans to announce the choice by the end of next month.
“I’ve made no decision except one: The person I will nominate will be someone of extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity,” Biden said. “And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It’s long overdue.”
Appearing with Breyer before a small group of reporters in the Roosevelt Room just outside the Oval Office, Biden called it “a bittersweet day for me,” noting that he and Breyer “go back a long way,” and praising him as “an exemplary justice” and “model public servant at a time of great division in this country.”
