| Good morning, Early Birds. Tune in at 11 a.m. to watch our fab colleague Marianna Sotomayor interview Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C), the Democratic whip, about … oh, whatever's on his mind. And send us your most burning tips: earlytips@washpost.com. Thanks for waking up with us. 🚨: Federal Judge David Carter is forcing John C. Eastman, the architect behind two legal memos outlining how to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, "to respond to a House select committee subpoena of Chapman University for his emails – setting congressional investigators up to receive access to information they've wanted for months but had not been able to get," CNN's Katelyn Polantz reports. | - "Chapman University will give Eastman's legal team access to his nearly 19,000 emails by midday on Tuesday, so they can sort through and identify which emails they believe should stay confidential as legal advice between Eastman and [former president Donald Trump], who was Eastman's client … A third party – potentially the judge or a team of reviewers – will then decide whether the emails can stay secret."
| | |  | From the courts | | Some Black lawmakers get behind Childs as SCOTUS nominee |  Judge J. Michelle Childs is a top pick from some Black lawmakers to fill Stephen Breyer's place on the Supreme Court. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File) | | | SCOTUS politics: Black Democrats hailed Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's decision to retire as an opportunity for President Biden to make good on his pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the high court — and some lawmakers are already trying to sway Biden's decision. Reps. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) have been lobbying Biden for the past year to nominate South Carolina District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs to the court if Breyer retired. In an interview on Wednesday, Butterfield said he'd continue to press Biden as well as outside groups such as the American Bar Association to support her. One of Childs's selling points, according to Butterfield: Unlike every current justice aside from Amy Coney Barrett, she isn't a product of an Ivy League law school. "She is the right person at the right time," Butterfield said. "She is a Southerner, she's Black, she's female, went to a nontraditional — I don't want to call it nontraditional, because the University of South Carolina is a very well-established law school. But it's not quote-unquote an Ivy League school." | | Clyburn echoed Butterfield's praise in an interview with Politico on Wednesday. "If you look at her background and you compare it to all the other people on the list, none of the other backgrounds or experiences touch hers," he said. | | Clyburn and Butterfield's lobbying already appears to have paid off in one way: Biden nominated Childs to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last month. She's set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week, offering Biden a potential preview of how she might hold up in a Supreme Court confirming hearing. Clyburn predicted on CNN on Wednesday evening that Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) could be convinced to back Childs if Biden nominated her — a hope Butterfield echoed. Clyburn, the Democratic whip, is the highest-ranking Black American in Congress and has additional sway with Biden after endorsing him at a pivotal moment in the 2020 primary, helping to revive his campaign. But Butterfield has played an important role behind the scenes by heading up a Congressional Black Caucus effort to suggest potential judicial nominees to the White House. He's been in touch with Biden's team — including Paige Herwig, a senior counsel in the White House counsel's office who works on judicial nominations — on a weekly basis, he said. One of the names the CBC — along with Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), who is White — recommended was Andre Mathis, Butterfield said. Biden nominated him in November to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, noting that he would be the first Black man confirmed to the court in 24 years. | | Clyburn and Butterfield aren't the only CBC members weighing in. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) urged Biden via Twitter on Wednesday afternoon to consider Childs as well as two much-talked-about candidates: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom Biden successfully nominated last year to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and California Supreme Court Associate Justice Leondra Kruger. | | She also suggested several other contenders, including Judge Wilhelmina Wright of the U.S. District Court in Minnesota; Judge Eunice Lee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. All of them graduated from Harvard or Yale law schools except for Ifill, who went to New York University School of Law, and Childs. Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, another potential nominee, went to Yale Law School. Jackson has long been viewed as the front-runner for the seat among lawyers and activists, as our colleagues Seung Min Kim and Ann Marimow report. "In comparison, Kruger, a former law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens, is viewed as more moderate, which could be an asset in a Senate that is divided 50-50 between the parties. Biden officials sought to recruit her to head the U.S. Solicitor General's Office, where she had previously worked, but she declined, according to people familiar with the matter." Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), a freshman who's a member of the Squad and the CBC, said on Wednesday that who Biden chose mattered. "I would love to see a Black woman who will insist on racial, environmental, social, disability, and economic justice named to the Supreme Court," Bush tweeted. "Identity is important but it is not enough." But Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said that Biden would be hard pressed to make a wrong choice if he nominates a Black woman. She'd be the first Black person nominated to the Supreme Court by a Democrat since Thurgood Marshall in 1967. "This will be somebody that our children's children will talk about," he said. "And I'm happy with Miss Kruger, Childs, Jackson, Gardner." "Anybody who's selected will generate a celebration in Black America," he added. | | Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) on South Carolina District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs as a SCOTUS nominee | "She is the right person at the right time." | | | | | | | | |  | At the White House | | Biden taps new appointees to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council | | Biden taps more bundlers: The White House announced a dozen new appointees to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council on Wednesday — including five people who raised at least $100,000 for his 2020 campaign. The former bundlers include Meryl Frank, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women; Sam Lauter, a former Biden Senate aide who worked on his 1988 presidential campaign and is now a principal at a California public affairs firm; Leah Pisar, who chairs a groups that aims to combat antisemitism; Mark Siegel, a former White House liaison to the American Jewish community in the Carter administration; and Susan Stern, who chaired the President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships during the Obama administration. Also among the appointees: Jeffrey Peck, a former Biden Senate aide who later became a lobbyist. (He deregistered in 2020.) Peck served of the board of the now-shuttered Biden Foundation and advised Biden's transition team after the 2020 election. | Kamala Harris heads to Honduras for presidential inauguration |  Vice President Harris and Guatemala's Minister of Foreign Affairs Pedro Brolo wave at her arrival ceremony in Guatemala City on June 6, 2021. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo, File) | | | Back to the Triangle: "When Vice President Harris attends the inauguration of new Honduran President Xiomara Castro [today], the White House hopes it is much more than a show of support during a historic meeting of female 'firsts,'" our colleagues Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Kevin Sieff write. | - "In Castro, the first woman to lead Honduras, the administration believes America has found an ally who will help stem corruption in a region rife with government abuse and unethical excess. Stanching graft, advisers to Harris say, is a pivotal step to improve the lives of Hondurans, and to give them a reason to stay in their home country instead of making a dangerous trip in search of a better life in the United States."
- "Harris will attend the inauguration [this] morning and then participate in a bilateral meeting with Castro in the afternoon. The trip is Harris's second to the Northern Triangle region of Central America since Biden asked her to lead the administration's efforts to attack the root causes of migration from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador — a complex and politically volatile issue that has bedeviled generations of political leaders."
- "But the visit, and the hope that Castro's government will resist the allure of authoritarianism and the dollars of drug cartels, underscores just how pervasive corruption in the region has become. The previous occupant of the Honduran presidential palace, Juan Orlando Hernández, has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator of narco-traffickers, accused of taking millions in bribes."
| | |  | The Data | | | The path from Supreme Court nominee to Supreme Court justice, visualized: "Breyer, 83, is the oldest of the nine justices and has served on the court for nearly three decades. With his apparent departure, Biden will go through the process of filling his first Supreme Court vacancy," our colleagues Ashlyn Still and Daniela Santamariña report. Here's how that will happen: | | |  | The Media | | | |  | Viral | | | Happy #ThrowbackThursday to Justice Stephen G. Breyer |  (where's the footage of Kavanaugh and Trump jogging??) | | | | AM/PM | | Looking for more analysis in the afternoon? | | | | Weekday newsletter, PM |  | | | | | | |
