Joe Biden wants Janet Napolitano on SCOTUS

Joe Biden and Janet Napolitano are shown in this composite. | AP Photos

Biden's comment came at Napolitano's DHS farewell ceremony. | AP Photos

Vice President Joe Biden has plans for the next career move of outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, saying he’d like to see her on the nation’s highest court.

“I think Janet should be in the Supreme Court of the United States,” he said Friday morning at her farewell ceremony, according to video from CSPAN.

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The room burst into loud applause, with a crowd that included Attorney General Eric Holder and other Cabinet members, past and present.

But Napolitano is headed west instead, where she will take over as the president of the University of California system, the first woman to take the helm. She announced she was stepping down in July.

(PHOTOS: Who’s who on the Supreme Court)

Biden gave a laudatory speech on Napolitano’s last day, and Holder also gave introductory remarks. Singing Napolitano’s praises, Biden said thanked her for “getting us through a pretty rough patch” and said California “should be incredibly grateful. They have no idea what’s coming.”

“It’s not hyperbole: The nation’s safer for your service,” Biden said. “You made it look easy. I kind of feel badly for your successor.”

The White House has not named a replacement for Napolitano.

After Napolitano gave her own remarks, choking up as she thanked and praised the people she worked with in her four years as secretary, representative employees of the department presented her with an American and DHS flag that flew above the DHS building.

The former governor of Arizona has practiced law and clerked for an appellate judge, though she has never served as a judge.

She was an original member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet.

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