Mixed Emotions and the Kentanji Brown Jackson Confirmation Hearings
I did not listen or watch as various senators made opening statements on day one of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for the Honorable Ketanji Brown Jackson. Bloviating is one of the truly bipartisan activities left in Washington, D.C. However, I have tuned in for the question and answer portion. In a word, Judge Jackson is impressive. It is a pleasure to watch this master class in how to be calm, cool, and collected, possessed of extraordinarily broad experience and superior intellect.
However, this particular confirmation hearing is one where mixed emotions may prevail. Joy and excitement over the nomination of a Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. At last, at long last. But there may be lament as well, particularly for women lawyers and law students of color, as the sadly inevitable challenges to a Black woman’s competence make the rounds.
The senators have not and will not directly make that claim. Instead, some have quoted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and pledged fealty to his principles. There has been, though, the predictable critical race theory dog whistle, complete with a misapprehension—intentional or otherwise—of the theory.
Those outside the Senate have not been so subtle. One of the most memorable highlights was a call for Judge Jackson to release her LSAT scores. Then came the statements surrounding President Biden’s intention to nominate an African-American women judge, asserting that seeking such long-over due representation was itself racist. And who can forget the tweet that Biden’s commitment would lead to the nomination of a “lesser [B]lack woman.” Stunning, really, as an assertion that President Biden could not find a Black woman nominee who would not be “lesser.”
Sadly, Black women have long known that they have to work twice as hard to be perceived to be just as good. In this historic moment I’d like to express my support for Black women law students who have had to hear yet again that those who look like them do not belong, are somehow not qualified. I cannot begin to understand the toll that takes but I want to acknowledge that it is real.