Ketanji Brown Jackson makes history: For the first time, a black woman becomes a judge on the US Supreme Court – despite grotesque insinuations from Republicans.
Washington DC – After a long dry spell, US President Joe Biden can finally claim a domestic political success for himself and the Democrats: the replacement of a judge’s position on the Supreme Court, the highest court of justice in the USA. And it’s a historic appointment, as Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes the first black woman in US history to serve as a judge on the Constitutional Court. The 51-year-old lawyer not only ensures more diversity in the highest judicial office, but also causes some controversy regarding her nomination.
Joe Biden had already committed to bringing the first black female judge to the Supreme Court during the spring 2020 presidential primary campaign should he become president. This campaign promise, which he has now kept, was part of a deal with Jim Clyburn, a representative from the US state of South Carolina and powerful parliamentary secretary of the Democrat faction in the US Congress. Clyburn’s support in South Carolina marked the pivotal turn in 2020 for Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee against Republican Donald Trump – to the detriment of Bernie Sanders. So Biden was in Clyburn’s debt.
Stephen Breyer resigns: Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes new constitutional judge
When the 83-year-old Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement at the end of January, Joe Biden had the chance to keep his promise and appoint a black woman as a constitutional judge for the first time. However, this identity-focused decision was largely rejected by Americans at the end of January, before Ketanji Brown Jackson was nominated: According to a poll by ABC News and Ipsos, 76 percent of Americans wanted Biden to “elect all eligible candidates :inside,” only 23 percent wanted him to commit to a black woman.
| Ketanji Brown Jackson | lawyer |
| date of birth | 14. September 1970 |
| Place of birth | Washington, D.C. |
| Government office | US Supreme Court Justice (from October 2022) |
However, Ketanji Brown Jackson is a lawyer with excellent qualifications. After studying law at the prestigious Harvard University, she has been a judge for almost ten years, first as a district judge and then on the Court of Appeals in Washington, DC. Previously, she was an attorney, public defender and a member of, and co-chaired, a sentencing committee Appointed by then-US President Barack Obama in 2010. The Washington Post created one graphic comparison of the qualifications of Ketanji Brown Jackson and the justices currently serving on the Supreme Court, showing that Jackson is unparalleled in terms of her legal career.
Supreme Court: Republicans create absurd scenes at Judiciary Committee hearing
The hearings before the US Senate Judiciary Committee, where senators can question the judge candidates, degenerated into an undignified spectacle – thanks to the Republican senators. They used the parliamentary process to attempt to discredit Ketanji Brown Jackson in any way they could while advancing their own far-right Kulturkampf agenda. Instead, since the candidate’s qualifications were beyond doubt, Republicans confronted her with absurd and untrue allegations.
For example, Josh Hawley, the far-right Missouri Senator, incorrectly claimed that Ketanji Brown Jackson “let off the hook” convicts of child pornography by under-sentencing. Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, no less right-wing, insinuated that critical race theory was Jackson’s “personal secret agenda”. Right-wingers in the USA use this slogan to encompass everything that has to do with anti-racism and the racist aspects of US history and the present. Senator Ted Cruz, the right-wing populist from Texas, asked Ketanji Brown Jackson if she agreed with the content of a book that even babies are racists. After more similar questions, Jackson replies, “Senator, I don’t know the contents of these books, nor are they the subject of my work as a judge, which is why, with all due respect, I’m here.”
Joe Biden appoints new US federal judge: smear campaign from right
Fox News, the Republican home and court broadcaster, also joined in the right-wing campaign against the African-American judge. For example, prior to Ketanji Brown Jackson’s hearings, Tucker Carlson, the network’s most popular anchor, who feels comfortable on the far right of mainstream US media, demanded that Joe Biden publish the results of her Harvard Law School entrance exam. He had not demanded the same from the three right-wing judges appointed by Trump: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
Despite the attempted smear campaign from the right, Ketanji Brown Jackson was undeterred and responded eloquently and skillfully to the sometimes absurd questions and insinuations of the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee. At the hearings, which were broadcast live, she always had to reckon with the possibility that any of her statements could be taken out of context and put out of context.
US Supreme Court: Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson by a vote of 53 to 47
There were also emotional moments during the hearings. There was the proud smile of one of Ketanji Brown Jackson’s two daughters, 17-year-old Leila, sitting at an angle behind her as the country’s attention turned to her mother. When Jackson mentioned her white husband, Patrick Jackson, whom she has loved for more than three decades and who was her first “serious boyfriend” in her opening statement, the doctor she met during her college years shed tears. The judge herself had to wipe away tears during the hearing when Cory Booker, the Democratic Senator from New Jersey and also black like Jackson, addressed her and said: “You deserve this position. You are worthy of it. You are a great American. There were laws in this country that would have prevented you from marrying your husband at the time.”
In any case, the Republican plan to discredit Ketanji Brown Jackson has failed phenomenally: After the hearing process full of false allegations and grotesque insinuations, almost half of Americans: inside polls supported her appointment as constitutional judge, while about a quarter opposed it. On Thursday afternoon (04/07/2022, local time) it was confirmed by the US Senate by a vote of 53 to 47. Among the yes votes are three Republicans who are not quite as far to the right as their fellow party members: Susan Collins from Maine, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska and Mitt Romney from Utah.
US Supreme Court: Conservatives majority by six votes to three
Joe Biden picked the right black woman from among the candidates he had to choose from. Because there were definitely bad candidates, such as Michelle Childs, who supported both Democrat Jim Clyburn and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Child’s previous judgments are characterized by a striking employer-friendliness. She would not have been a good choice as a judge on the Supreme Court, because the court currently has a right-wing majority of six to three votes anyway. She would have been another conservative voice against workers’ rights and for discrimination against women and minorities.
But with Ketanji Brown Jackson, not only the best candidate among the black women who were available for selection was appointed to the US Constitutional Court, but one of the “cleverest lawyers in our country”, as Joe Biden said. In the summer she will replace Stephen Breyer, the judge for whom she served during her legal training, on the Supreme Court. (Johanna Soll)