GOP senators grill potential Biden Supreme Court pick

President Joe Biden's judicial nominees testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

After a flurry of Trump judicial appointments, President Joe Biden's first nominees to the federal courts showcased their striking diversity in Senate testimony Wednesday, even as Republicans grilled the candidates over the role of race in the judicial system, religious liberty and expanding the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom Biden nominated to replace Merrick Garland on the high-profile D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals when he picked Garland for attorney general, was a main focus of GOP questions given her status as a leading contender if there's a high court vacancy. Biden has said he would appoint the first African American woman to the Supreme Court at his first opportunity. Jackson is one of just 35 active Black female federal judges currently serving, according to the Federal Judicial Center. Only four are circuit court judges. Former President Barack Obama nominated Jackson, a former federal public defender and a former vice chair and commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, to the federal District Court for D.C. in 2012. She formerly clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer, whom many liberals have been calling for to retire.