Sherrilyn Ifill’s defund police history may hurt chances for SCOTUS seat

President Joe Biden is selecting his first nominee to the Supreme Court at a time when crime rates are high and violence against police in particular is spiking.

Comments about crime made by individuals Biden is believed to be considering for the seat have resurfaced in recent days—especially those made by Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund who has spoken often about her position on the “defund the police” movement.

There is widespread speculation that the uptick in crime and in violence against police during the coronavirus pandemic may factor into Biden’s selection process as he meets with officials at the local and national levels in the weeks leading up to his nomination of a justice. With elevated attention directed at crime in response to the recent rise in violence against police, focus has narrowed in on what has been said about crime by those whom Biden is believed to be considering for the Court nomination, especially in regards to the “defund the police” movement that gained prominence in 2020.

Meanwhile, the president said recently he intends to stick to his campaign promise of appointing a Black woman to the bench and intends to put a nominee forward by the end of February. Later this week, Biden is expected to visit New York City to discuss gun violence with the city’s new mayor, Eric Adams. Biden’s upcoming visit comes after two on-duty New York City police officers were fatally shot last month.

A spokesperson for the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), a union representing more than 364,000 officers, told Newsweek the recent increase in violence should be among the elements Biden considers while weighing potential Supreme Court nominees.

“One of the most significant and important nominations a president can make is a nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States,” the FOP spokesperson said. “In doing so, all presidents consider a topical range of the types of cases that will come before the Supreme Court.”

In January, 29 police officers died while in the line of duty from a variety of causes, according to a database operated by the nonprofit Officer Down Memorial Page. Five of those officers were fatally shot, according to the FOP. Data pertaining to shootings in particular shows 30 on-duty officers have been shot so far this year, which the FOP reports is a 67 percent increase over the number of officers shot by this time last year.

National FOP President Patrick Yoes said in a statement last week that violence aimed at law enforcement officers is “skyrocketing.”

“I have worked in law enforcement for 36 years, and the current level of violence targeted at our law enforcement officers is the worst I have ever seen,” he said.

FBI data for 2021 breaks down on-duty officer deaths between those that were accidental and those felonious. Seventy-three felonious on-duty officer deaths were reported throughout 2021, according to an FBI report released earlier this year. The number represents a 58.7 percent increase in on-duty felonious officer deaths over those reported in 2020 and the highest number reported in 10 years, the report says.

Ifill has emerged as one of the individuals Biden may be considering for the Supreme Court vacancy created when Stephen Breyer retires at the end of the term. Comments she has made in the past about the “defund the police” movement have resurfaced amid the chatter surrounding Biden’s forthcoming nomination.

In early June 2020, as Americans across the country were protesting George Floyd’s death while in Minneapolis police custody, Ifill wrote an article for Slate that took readers on a step-by-step process for how she proposes to reform policing in the U.S. In the piece, she cited a “few long-overdue measures” that she said could be explored at the local, state and national levels, including establishing a national database for fired officers and directing public safety money toward community intervention strategies that do not require the presence of armed officers.

Ifill further explained her support for the idea of shifting public safety funding during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert later that same month. A hypothetical mental health emergency was one of the examples she gave of a community event that she said does not necessarily require a police response but could benefit from the presence of someone trained to handle that kind of crisis.

“Rather than turn the entire public safety regime over to armed law enforcement officers, we need to look at that funding, reduce that funding and use it to support these other services,” she said.

Ifill noted the “defund the police” phrase “makes many people very anxious and very nervous” when Colbert asked her about it. She suggested the “anxiety” about the movement was “anxiety about the phrase” and not about the ideas behind the movement itself.

“We should be looking at budgets, and we should be looking at how we have tried to solve some of our city’s problems and our public safety issues, and we should recognize that this overreliance on police has given us the regime that we can see is not working,” Ifill told Colbert.

Last year, Ifill was again asked about her perspective on “defunding the police” while delivering a keynote presentation for Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University. During her presentation, she acknowledged that some people in the U.S. “get upset about the term” and suggested it “inflames the conversation.”

“But I understand what animates the term to be something that I do agree with, which is that what has been happening is not working,” Ifill said. She went on to reiterate her past comments about striving to “reimagine” how public safety is supported and funded, giving the same kinds of examples she did while speaking the year before with Colbert.

“I encourage people to actually move past the terminology and to really be thoughtful about what needs to happen in this moment,” she said.