US Attorney General Loretta Lynch should be tapped to fill Justice Anotnin Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court, urged members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Saturday.
“She’s already been vetted. She meets the criteria,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md) told The Hill.
Lynch would be the first African-American woman justice on the court. Cummings argued that Justice Clarence Thomas, who is also black, does not represent the community’s interests.
“African-American women have played a major role in our electoral process,” Cummings said.
Lynch is a Harvard-educated lawyer and the former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where she prosecuted the Abner Louima police brutality case.
She was confirmed by the Republican-majority Senate last year in a 56-43 vote.
CBC member Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said that if President Barack Obama nominated Lynch, Republican opposition to the prospect of an election-year judicial appointment would crumble.
“Probably more than anyone else, she would, with open minds, sail through the Judiciary Committee and onto the floor for a vote,” he said.