Flashback: In 1980, Presidential Candidate Ronald Reagan Promised SCOTUS Vacancy ‘Will Be Filled by the Most Qualified Woman I Can Possibly Find’

President Joe Biden has been facing criticism from Republicans over his vow to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court of the United States, but his pledge is remarkably similar to one made by then-candidate Ronald Reagan in the final month of the 1980 presidential election.

With Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer confirming the news that he plans to retire, Biden now faces one of the most momentous decisions a president ever faces: who should be nominated for the lifetime appointment to fill Breyer’s seat on the nation’s highest court.

Biden made his promise about appointing a Black female Justice during his March 2020 primary debate with Bernie Sanders.

“I committed that if I’m elected president and I have an opportunity to appoint someone to the Court, I’ll appoint the first Black woman to the Court,” he said. “It’s required that they have representation now — it’s long overdue.”

Biden reaffirmed that campaign promise when he spoke before Breyer gave his remarks announcing his retirement, vowing that his process would be “rigorous” and he would consult with Vice President Kamala Harris, bipartisan members of the Senate, and various legal scholars.

Contrary to the oversimplification of the president’s comments by some of his critics, he is not merely searching for any random Black woman to nominate, but someone who is qualified for the extremely important job and who is a Black woman. As he expressly stated this week:

The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity, and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It’s long overdue in my view. I made that commitment during my campaign for president and I will keep that commitment.

Fox News contributor Tomi Lahren was one of a number of conservative commentators who attacked Biden’s pledge, and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had to fend off questions about whether the president was guilty of “reverse racism.”

History doesn’t repeat, but it echoes, the saying goes, and Reagan had similar-sounding ideas about his SCOTUS nominees during the 1980 presidential campaign.

As seen in the video above, Reagan took what Chris Wallace (then a reporter with NBC Nightly News) called “a dramatic step…to reach out for female support” and announced his attention to appoint a woman to the Supreme Court.

“I’m announcing today that one of the first Supreme Court vacancies in my administration will be filled by the most qualified woman I can possibly find,” said Reagan. “One who meets the high standards I will demand for all my court appointments. It’s time for a woman to sit among our highest jurists.”

Reagan did end up fulfilling that campaign promise, nominating Sandra Day O’Connor in 1981. She was the first and only woman on the Supreme Court for over a decade until she was joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993. O’Connor retired from the Court in 2006.

Watch the video clips above, via MSNBC and CNN (Hat tip: @Acyn on Twitter).

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