Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Senate confirmation hearing has commenced, so let’s first dispense with the easy stuff: She’s eminently qualified to join the U.S. Supreme Court.
No other nominee has ever boasted such a wide-ranging resume (federal appeals judge, federal trial judge, federal public defender, member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, high court clerk, Ivy League law degree); she has earned the American Bar Association’s highest recommendation rating; the Fraternal Order of Police says “she has the temperament, intellect, legal experience, and family background to have earned this appointment”; and, last but not least, she has already cleared the Senate hurdle three times, having been confirmed thrice for previous federal posts.
Most (if not all) Senate Republicans will predictably vote against her anyway, buttressed by lame excuses – insurrection fanboy Josh Hawley claims that she has been soft on child porn offenders, a fictional allegation that the conservative National Review calls “meritless to the point of demagoguery” – and hilarious grumblings that the Jackson nomination process is somehow being rushed. How quickly they forgot the modern land-speed record set in 2020 by Amy Coney Barrett.
Anyway, the bottom line is that Jackson has well-earned the job she will soon have. And with all her professional credentials duly noted, there’s another reason she needs to be on the court:
To serve at their best for the good of all Americans, the nine justices need to reflect the nation’s diversity of experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds. Jackson is a black woman. Her life experience, perspective, and background – in addition to her unassailable legal skills – will add value to a court that has never opened its ranks to a black woman.
Until black civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall arrived in 1967, each and every high court justice in history had offered only the experience, perspective, and background of a white man. And when he retired in 1991, Sandra Day O’Connor (the first woman) wrote this noteworthy tribute:
“Although all of us come to the Court with our own personal histories and experiences, Justice Marshall brought a special perspective. His was the eye of a lawyer who saw the deepest wounds in the social fabric and used the law to help heal them. His was the ear of a counselor who understood the vulnerabilities of the accused and established safeguards for their protection. His was the mouth of a man who knew the anguish of the silenced and gave them a voice…Justice Marshall imparted not only his legal acumen but also his life experiences, constantly pushing and prodding us to respond not only to the persuasiveness of legal argument but also to the power of moral truth.”
You see where I’m going with this. If not, this recent letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, authored by more than 200 black female law professors, should clinch the argument:
“Each year, the Court decides some of the most contentious and difficult questions facing the nation. Its opinions affect all individuals living in the United States…Throughout the history of the United States, laws have been created, enacted, interpreted, and enforced predominantly by white men. Today, although white men comprise roughly 30 percent of the nation’s population, they make up more than 70 percent of the federal judiciary. Conversely, according to a 2022 report from the Pew Research Center, of the 3,843 people who have served as federal judges throughout our nation’s history, only 70 have been Black women. That is fewer than two percent, far below Black women’s representation among the population in the United States.
“The Supreme Court (says it) is ‘charged with ensuring the American people the promise of equal justice under law and, thereby, also functions as guardian and interpreter of the Constitution.’ Representation matters. It is essential to fairness, justice, and the Court’s legitimacy. All of these are weakened when its justices neither look like the rest of the United States nor reflect the values of a segment of society.”
That reasoning was good enough for the few Senate Republicans who voted to confirm Jackson for her current job as a federal appeals judge. Indeed, Lindsey Graham – one of those Yes voters – said this morning, in round one of the Supreme Court confirmation hearing, that “I think it’s a good idea for the court to look like America. Count me in on the idea of making the court more diverse.” But alas, Lindsey always has a hitch. He then insisted that Jackson is in cahoots with “the far extreme part of the left,” so let the games begin.
But happily for most Americans – 55 percent of whom support Jackson’s nomination, and 69 percent of whom support more racial and gender diversity on the top bench – the bitter-end Republican custodians of white hegemony will be history’s roadkill.