Beyond a First, Black Female Justice May Shake Up High Court

Illustration: Jonathan Hurtarte/Bloomberg Law
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President Joe Biden renewed his pledge to nominate the first Black woman justice to replace Stephen Breyer, a step that could inject new lived experience into the Supreme Court and change expectations about who lands on the federal bench, advocates and scholars say.

The “overdue” nomination of the first Black woman justice “can’t help but influence the way that the law is interpreted, and to enrich and make the law make sense to whole communities who have been shut out,” said Aimee Allison, founder of She the People, a group that pushes for more political representation for women of color.