最高法院候选人的职业经历米歇尔·查尔兹法官对民主党和共和党都有吸引力的她现在可能会使她的潜在提名变得复杂，因为一些劳工和进步团体警告白宫，她的任命将打破乔·拜登总统的提名承诺成为历史上“最亲工会的总统”。

查尔兹得到了有影响力的南卡罗来纳州的支持众议员詹姆斯·克莱伯恩也是白宫提名的唯一一位接替即将退休的候选人斯蒂芬·布雷耶法官，在南卡罗来纳州一家著名的公司Nexsen Pruet从事了八年的劳动和就业法律工作。她的一些客户包括被指控在工作场所存在种族和性别歧视及性骚扰的雇主。

“她的记录表明，她为雇主赢得了胜利，我认为在这个时刻这是有问题的，”我们的革命的执行董事约瑟夫·吉瓦格斯说，帐单为美国最大的草根资助的进步团体伯尼·桑德斯参议员。。

他说:“如果我们对(被提名人)目前在劳工权利或企业相对于劳工的权力上的立场有任何疑问，我们不应该提出来，我们会积极反对。

公司的网站声称是卡罗莱纳州“最大和最有经验的”劳动和就业法律实践之一，吹捧“在符合我们所代表的雇主的最佳利益的情况下，通过审判积极追究任何事情的诉讼技巧。”

本月早些时候，美国政府雇员联合会的一名高级律师，公开呼吁Child的前雇主是一家“反工会律师事务所”，并补充道“这不是我们需要的。”

她的前尼克森·普鲁特同事告诉美国广播公司新闻，虽然查尔兹确实帮助维护公司客户，但她也代表员工对雇主的虐待提出索赔。几个人形容她有一个公正的和受人尊敬的诉讼律师。2000年，她被任命为该公司的合伙人——在一个长期由白人男性主导的法律行业中，她是第一位成为南卡罗来纳州律师事务所合伙人的黑人女性。

“我不会将她的工作描述为反工会或反员工，”尼克森·普鲁特(Leighton Pruet)的管理合伙人莱顿·洛德(Leighton Lord)说。莱顿在查尔兹一年后加入该公司，并与她共事多年。

“她处理了十几件员工事务，”洛德说，她代表起诉公司雇主的员工提到了自己的工作。“在我们公司出现的律师中，她可能是比我们任何其他就业律师更为员工服务的律师之一。因此，她在私营部门的从业方式非常平衡。”

儿童参与了25起就业案件，其中23起是为被控基于种族或性别歧视的雇主辩护美国前景这是一份自由主义出版物，回顾了她任职期间的州法院记录。

在20世纪90年代末的一个案例中，查尔兹代表一家海滩服装零售商被两名前雇员起诉，指控他们在工作中几乎每天都遭受性侵犯。联邦陪审团站在...一边原告裁定赔偿和惩罚性赔偿，上诉后维持原判。

她的前同事说，法庭记录没有反映出查尔兹在法庭外为雇员与雇主达成和解的许多例子。洛德提到了1999年的一个案例，在这个案例中，查尔兹代表一名麦克卡车工人声称自己被非法解雇，她在没有接受审判的情况下获得了“巨大”的和解。

尽管一些批评者指责查尔兹反对工会运动，但尼克森·普鲁特表示，该公司从未开展过任何此类活动，只有一名专门处理工会问题的律师——一名在查尔兹离开公司四年后加入的律师。

格雷格·纳什/美联社文件

众议院多数党领袖詹姆斯·克莱伯恩在新闻发布会上向记者发表讲话..

洛德说:“多样性不仅仅是种族和性别，它还是一种体验。“她在Nexsen Pruet的时光让她有了代表员工、代表公司的私人执业经历——这让她对法律实践的实际运作方式有了独特的理解。”

查尔兹已经赢得了一些劳工团体的支持，包括美国劳联-产联南卡罗来纳州分会，该分会主席小查尔斯·布赖尔在本月早些时候给拜登的一封信中表示，查尔兹将“很好地代表我们所有人。”

在2000年离开尼克森·普鲁特之后，查尔兹继续在州劳工部担任指定的副主任，监督工作场所的安全法规。从2002年到2006年，她在一个裁决受伤或残疾雇员福利的国家委员会中担任工人赔偿法官。

“当每个人走进她的法庭时，都觉得自己被倾听了，”梅利亚·鲍尔斯·杰斐逊说，她曾是查尔兹的联邦法官。

吉瓦赫塞说，拜登候选人名单上的其他候选人，包括美国上诉法院法官克坦吉·布朗·杰克逊和加州最高法院法官莱昂德拉·克鲁格，不要提出与Childs相同的关注级别。他没有支持某个特定的提名人。

“如果参议员林赛·格雷厄姆(共和党)为米歇尔·查尔兹担保，这应该会让民主党人暂停，”他说。

格雷厄姆周日在美国广播公司的“本周”节目中表示，他相信查尔兹将在拜登的候选人名单中“获得最多的共和党选票”。他说:“我认为，她会是一个能让参议院团结起来的人，可能会获得60多张选票。

白宫没有直接回应对查尔兹的批评，但明确表示她仍在考虑之中。白宫发言人安德鲁·贝茨说，总统“正在积极寻求两党成员的建议，因为他准备做出历史性的选择，并履行总统最重要的职责之一”。

与查尔兹关系密切的杰弗逊说，法官可能不会对争议感到不安。

杰弗逊说:“虽然她在职业生涯开始时可能被认为是在就业法方面有这种专长的人，但当然，当她在州法院担任法官时，她的经验范围扩大了。“至少从我的角度来看，她在每种情况下的做法都是根据自身的价值来决定的。”

Labor issues complicate Judge J. Michelle Childs' Supreme Court candidacy

The very career experience that makes Supreme Court candidateJudge J. Michelle Childsattractive to both Democrats and Republicans may now be complicating her potential nomination, as some labor and progressive groups warn the White House that her appointment would break President Joe Biden'spromiseto be "the most pro-union president" in history.

Childs, backed by influential South CarolinaRep. James Clyburnand the only candidate named by the White House as in the running to replace retiringJustice Stephen Breyer, spent eight years practicing labor and employment law at a prestigious South Carolina firm, Nexsen Pruet. Some of her clients included employers accused of race and gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace.

"Her record shows that she wins for employers, and I think that's problematic in this moment," said Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution,billed asthe nation's largest grassroots-funded progressive group allied withSen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt..

"If we have any doubt about where [the nominee] stands on labor rights or the power of corporations verses labor in our economy right now, we should not put them forward and we would actively oppose them," he said.

The firm'swebsiteclaims "one of the largest and most experienced" labor and employment law practices in the Carolinas, touting "litigation skills to aggressively pursue any matter through trial when it is in the best interests of the employers we represent."

Earlier this month, a top lawyer for the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union with roughly 700,000 members,publicly calledChild's former employer an "anti-union law firm," adding "that's not what we need."

While Childs did help defend corporate clients, she also represented employees in claims of mistreatment by their employers, her former Nexsen Pruet colleagues told ABC News. Several described her has a fair-minded and well-respected litigator. In 2000, she was named a partner at the firm -- the first Black woman to become partner at a South Carolina law firm in a legal industry long dominated by white men.

"I would not characterize her work as anti-union or anti-employee," said Nexsen Pruet managing partner Leighton Lord, who joined the firm a year after Childs and worked alongside her for many years.

"She worked on a dozen or so employee matters," Lord said, referencing her work on behalf of employees suing their corporate employers. "Of the lawyers that came up in our firm, she's probably one of the ones that worked more on the employee side than any of our other employment lawyers. So she's very balanced in how she practiced in the private sector."

Childs participated in 25 employment cases -- in 23 of them defending an employer accused of alleged discrimination on the basis of race or sex, according to theAmerican Prospect, a liberal publication which reviewed state court records during her tenure.

In one case, in the late 1990s, Childs represented a beachwear retailer sued by two former employees for alleged near-daily sexual assault at work. A federal jurysided withthe plaintiffs, awarding compensatory and punitive damages, a decision upheld on appeal.

Her former colleagues say that court records do not reflect the many instances in which Childs achieved settlements for employees against their employers outside of court. Lord noted a 1999 case in which Childs represented a Mack Truck worker alleging wrongful termination, and she secured a "great" settlement without going to trial.

While some critics have accused Childs of working against unionization drives, Nexsen Pruet says it has never conducted any such campaigns and only has a single lawyer on staff specializing in union issues -- one who joined four years after Childs left the firm.

"Diversity is more than just race and gender, it's experience," Lord said. "Her time at Nexsen Pruet gave her private practice experience representing employees, representing companies -- it gave her a unique understanding of how the practice of law actually works."

Childs has won the endorsement of some labor groups, including the South Carolina chapter of the AFL-CIO, whose president, Charles Brave, Jr., said in a letter to Biden earlier this month that Childs would "represent all of us well."

After leaving Nexsen Pruet in 2000, Childs went on to oversee workplace safety regulations as an appointed deputy director at the state Department of Labor. From 2002 to 2006, she served as a workers' comp judge on a state commission adjudicating benefits for injured or disabled employees.

"Everybody feels heard when they come into the doors of her courtroom," said Meliah Bowers Jefferson, a former clerk for Childs on the federal bench.

Geevarhese said other candidates on Biden's short list, including U.S. Appeals Court JudgeKetanji Brown Jacksonand California Supreme Court JusticeLeondra Kruger, do not raise the same level of concern as Childs. He stopped short of endorsing a particular nominee.

"If Sen. Lindsey Graham [R-S.C.] is vouching for Michelle Childs, it should give Democrats pause," he said.

Graham said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" that he believes Childs would "get the most Republican votes" of any candidate on Biden's short list. "She would be somebody, I think, that could bring the Senate together and probably get more than 60 votes," he said.

The White House has not directly responded to the criticism of Childs but made clear she is still under consideration. The president "is actively seeking the recommendations of members of both parties as he prepares to make an historic choice and fulfill one of the most important duties of the presidency," said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates.

Jefferson, who remains close with Childs, said the judge is likely unfazed by the controversy.

"While she may have been known at the beginning of her career as someone who had this expertise in employment law, certainly while she was on the state court bench the breadth of her experience expanded," Jefferson said. "Her approach in every case, at least from my perspective, was that it is decided on its own merits."