Labor issues complicate Judge J. Michelle Childs' Supreme Court candidacy

Progressive and labor union objections to Judge J. Michelle Childs may complicate her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The very career experience that makes Supreme Court candidate Judge J. Michelle Childs attractive to both Democrats and Republicans may now be complicating her potential nomination, as some labor and progressive groups warn the White House that her appointment would break President Joe Biden's promise to be "the most pro-union president" in history.

Childs, backed by influential South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn and the only candidate named by the White House as in the running to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, spent eight years practicing labor and employment law at a prestigious South Carolina firm, Nexsen Pruet. Some of her clients included employers accused of race and gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace.

"Her record shows that she wins for employers, and I think that's problematic in this moment," said Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, billed as the nation's largest grassroots-funded progressive group allied with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt..

"If we have any doubt about where [the nominee] stands on labor rights or the power of corporations verses labor in our economy right now, we should not put them forward and we would actively oppose them," he said.