My thinking about the likely nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia continues to evolve. His untimely death surprised everyone. The White House is now compiling a list. Democrats are gearing up to support whatever nominee is chosen. Republicans are shaping their message in opposition to any possible candidate.

I discussed my sense of the political calculus in earlier post. Here it is, along with some additional elaboration. I follow it with an explanation for why my thinking on the next nominee has evolved from Ninth Circuit Judge Paul Watford to Attorney General Loretta Lynch (both of whom will almost certainly get serious consideration) to U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2016/02/continued-thoughts-on-the-next-nominee-and-impressions-of-judge-ketanji-brown-jackson/

There is very little concrete information about whom the president is considering as a Supreme Court nominee. There were reliable reports that the administration was vetting Brian Sandoval, Nevada’s Republican governor, and is vetting federal district judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. The word “vetting,” however, does not suggest that either was the presumptive nominee or even under particularly serious consideration.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2016/03/five-potential-nominees-from-the-federal-appellate-bench/

The fight over President Obama’s eventual Supreme Court nominee could get personal for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

One of names being floated as a possible pick is someone who Ryan calls family: D.C. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Connected by marriage, Jackson’s husband, Patrick Jackson, is the twin brother of Ryan’s brother-in-law William Jackson.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/potential-supreme-court-nominee-family-house-speaker-paul/story?id=37187861

The Senate confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on Monday to the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, giving President Biden his first pick on an appeals court even as the Senate Republican leader threatened future roadblocks for Biden administration judicial nominees.

Following her approval by a bipartisan vote of 53 to 44, Judge Jackson, who served as a federal district judge, will join the court regarded as the second highest in the land, and considered an incubator for Supreme Court justices. She is widely considered a potential nominee for the Supreme Court should a vacancy occur during the tenure of Mr. Biden, who has promised to appoint the first African-American woman as a justice.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/us/ketanji-brown-jackson-mcconnell-judges.html