The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed the nomination of South Carolina jurist Michelle Childs — recently under consideration for a slot on the U.S. Supreme Court — to sit on the federal court typically seen as a proving ground for the nation’s highest bench.
Senators, including a number of Republicans, voted 64 to 34 to approve Childs’ nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 17-5 earlier this year to advance her nomination.
Childs, 56, has been a federal judge on South Carolina’s District Court for more than a decade. Earlier this year, she was on a short list of candidates being considered by President Joe Biden for an upcoming vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, given the pending retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer.
Childs had a litany of high-profile advocates, including U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, on whose advice Biden pledged during the 2020 campaign to nominate a Black woman to the high court.