Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, said she supported the appointment of a Black woman to the US Supreme Court.
She said that she would welcome the appointment of a black female to the court.
President Bill Clinton appointed a liberal voice to the court in 1994 and he plans to retire at the end of the current term in 2022.
During his campaign for president, Biden promised to appoint a black woman to the court. A black woman has never served on the Supreme Court. The first and only non-white female justice to ever serve on the court is Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Collins said the way Biden has handled the vacancy adds to the perception that the court is a political institution.
When asked how Biden had handled the opening differently than his predecessors, George Stephanopoulos, particularly Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, who while in office said they intended to nominate a woman to the court, Collins said, "This isn't true."
Biden made a promise to nominate a Black woman while he was still a candidate for president.
Many on the left want the justice to step down so that his seat can be filled by Biden in case a Republican wins the presidency in 2024.
Similar calls followed the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who ignored pleas to retire during the Obama administration and died during the final months of Trump's presidency. The conservative supermajority on the court was solidified by Trump's nomination of Justice Amy ConeyBarrett.
The nomination came too close to the election and Collins didn't vote to confirm it.
Collins said that she was open to whoever Biden chose to be his nominee.
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