Illustration by Xena Seo
Kentanji Brown Jackson, officially the 116th Associate Justice of the U.S Supreme Court, was nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed on April 7 by the United States Senate with a 53-47 vote.
The road to success was not easy for Jackson, who is the first Black woman to be part of the Supreme Court.
America is fortunate to place Jackson as the new Supreme Court Justice, as she’s a well-educated contributor to an entire new wave of thinking and decision making for the liberty and justice of all Americans.
Jackson is a Harvard Law School graduate with over 10 years of federal bench experience. She also sat on the U.S. Sentencing Commision and served as a public defender for approximately three years, according to an April 7 Texas Tribune article.
In contrast to the unimpressed Republicans who have criticized Brown’s credentials, her academic history and judicial experience is enough to prove that her background is legitimate and beyond worthy to hold an important political position.
It’s hard to believe that Republicans who have argued against Brown’s capabilities are doing so because they think she is incapable based on her academic background and more so her racial background.
Jackson’s confirmation process for the Supreme Court took approximately 40 days from the time Biden announced her nomination to her official confirmation by the Senate.
Jackson received 50 votes from the Democratic party and just three votes from the Republican party.
The discrepancy between Republican and Democratic votes was to be expected.
However, the way Republicans negatively portrayed her in the media by aggressively attacking her with verbal insults was disgusting and surprising.
Republicans consistently carried themselves in a disrespectful manner, shamelessly disregarding the professional respect that Jackson deserves as a person, a Black woman and a highly qualified lawyer who received an impeccable education.
Most of the attacks on Jackson revolved around her former position as a public defender, which she held from 2005 to 2007.
During this time, Jackson represented some of the country’s most vulnerable people, which is a unique background compared to other Supreme Court judges.
Jackson’s work as a public defender correlated with her strong beliefs that racial justice in court is necessary for people of color, according to a Mar. 21 Vox article.
Despite Jackson’s reasoning in fighting for disadvantaged defendants, Republicans continued to disregard the deeper meaning and only attacked Jackson for defending people they deemed undeserving of defense in court.
One of these defendants was Khi Ali Gul, who was identified in 2007 by the U.S. government as an intelligence chief for the Taliban and the possible cell leader of a terrorist group.
The Republican National Committee vocally argued that no matter what Jackson claims, she advocated for Gul, one of the Guantanamo terrorists deemed an “enemy combatant” by the U.S. government.
It’s important to note that it is not a public defender’s job to choose which cases they hear, their job is only to take the cases they are given and fight for the justice of the defendant to the best of their ability.
Jackson’s case involving Gul and Guantanamo Bay was just one of the many cases that required her fair service, regardless of her personal views.
Republican Arkansas State Senator Tom Cotton boldly asked Jackson if she’d ever considered resigning instead of continuing to defend a terrorist, according to a Feb. 25 Bloomberg Law article.
Cotton was grossly disrespectful.
The sad reality is if Jackson wasn’t a Black woman, who is looked down upon by white men in America, she would not have been approached in the same unprofessional manner.
Jackson noted in response that the briefs during her defense hearings were not always her personal views, they were the views of her clients, which was her job to represent as best as she could, according to the Mar. 21 VOX article.
This was a valid response that shows Jackson separates her personal views with her job, which should be every Supreme Court Justice’s priority.
A.J. Kramer, federal public defender for the District of Columbia, supported Jackson’s argument and said in the VOX article that the office needed someone with a “brilliant mind” that could handle the complex legal issues of the Guantanamo case involving Gul.
Republicans have argued that even though she didn’t choose her own clients, she has fought for them diligently which “reflects her thinking.”
Aside from the attacks on Jackson’s defense cases, Republicans have also attacked her personal capabilities.
In March, far-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson bluntly demanded that the White House release Jackson’s LSAT score, implying that she was not capable of passing the exam, according to an April 7 article from the Guardian.
In another March public announcement from Carlson, he mocked Jackson’s name, claiming even Biden has trouble pronouncing it. He then proceeded to sarcastically declare she’s one of the most knowledgeable political minds in the country, according to the same the Guardian article.
Josh Hawley, Senate Judiciary committee member, shared a Twitter thread that claimed Jackson allegedly contributed to letting child pornography offenders be acquitted after they’ve committed disgusting crimes.
South Carolina Senior U.S. Senator Republican Lindsey Graham also agreed that these claims were true, according to the same article from the Guardian.
These claims were proven to be false by fact checkers and legal experts, which made these republicans look like gossiping elementary school students who foolishly spread defamatory statements across the internet before thinking like mature adults.
Republican Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker also openly criticized Jackson for only being nominated by Biden because she was Black and because Biden promised to select a Black woman to replace Stephen Breyer’s seat once he retired, according to the article from the Guardian.
Wicker’s claim disregards the fact that Biden had to choose from a plethora of great minds and qualified people, who had just as much potential for holding the next Associate Justice seat as Jackson.
The bold accusations and unprofessionalism of Republican figures who targeted Jackson during her hearing proves how far America has left to go in eliminating racial and gender discrimination against Black women.