South Carolina federal Judge J. Michelle Childs handed down a 12-year prison sentence in 2009 for a nonviolent marijuana offense, a decision which has some progressives balking at her potential Supreme Court nomination.
The American Prospect reported Thursday that when Childs was a county circuit judge in the Palmetto State, she sentenced a man named William Roy Goodwin to 12 years in prison for half a pound of marijuana.
Caught on hidden camera selling the drug to an undercover police officer, Goodwin pleaded guilty to several charges, expecting a sentence of up to five years given his status as a repeat offender, the Prospect reported.
Prosecutors, however, argued for a considerably longer sentence, and Childs handed it down, putting Goodwin away for more than a decade.
"I had more time than people in there who killed somebody," Goodwin told the Prospect. "It was crazy."
Liberal commentator Krystal Ball tweeted "Outrageous," in response to the story and progressive Wisconsin Democrat Senate candidate Tom Nelson said "the hits keep coming."
"Now we learn Judge Childs tossed some guy in the clink for over a decade for taking too many tokes," he said. "How many more reasons do we need to reject her nomination?"
Currently a federal district court judge in South Carolina, Childs was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit before Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced he plans to retire at the end of the current term.
White House Spokesman Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital that "President Biden is evaluating Judge Childs for this Supreme Court vacancy for the same reasons that he is proud to have nominated her for the D.C. Circuit court: because of her record, character and values."
"She has served honorably as a federal judge since President Obama chose her in 2010, based on her experience on the South Carolina bench as well as her 'exceptional integrity' and 'unwavering commitment to justice,' " he added.
Bates also said that Childs has worked to help those charged with drug-related offenses get help.
"In her 16 years being a judge, she has issued thousands of decisions," he said. "As a federal judge, Judge Childs created and continues to administer her court's first drug court program — Columbia Bridge — which has diverted defendants charged with drug-related offenses away from prison toward drug treatment and reform."
Goodwin alleged Childs imposed the harsh sentence because she was angling for a federal court appointment, which came a few months later.
"Childs was shooting for that seat, trying to make an example out of me," he told the Prospect. "Didn't care what kind of lives she destroyed."
House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., is a supporter of Childs, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told ABC he believes Childs is eminently qualified to be on the nation's highest court.
Other potential candidates for the Supreme Court vacancy are D.C. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger and NAACP Legal Defense Fund president Sherrilyn Ifill.
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