Hillary Clinton joined those rallying behind U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson as her confirmation hearings began this Monday. On Twitter, Clinton shared a recap of some of Jackson’s qualifications; the recap laid out how Jackson went to a public high school and Ivy League law school, while her career has included time as a Supreme Court clerk, public defender, sentencing commission member, district judge, and court of appeals judge — and no Justice who is currently on the court actually has each one of those elements to their background. As Hillary Clinton succinctly put it:
‘I’d say she’s qualified.’
I'd say she's qualified.
Source: @washingtonpost pic.twitter.com/u18lPpQh1b
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 21, 2022
Jackson’s confirmation process started with a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where chairperson Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) pointed out to Jackson that “not a single Justice has been a Black woman. You can be the first… It’s not easy being the first. In some ways you have to be the best, in some ways the bravest… You are a living witness that in fact in America all is possible… There may be some who claim, without a shred of evidence that you will be some kind of rubber stamp for the president… I have four words: Look at the record. Your complete record has been scoured by this committee on four different occasions.”
Very soon, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will appear before my colleagues and me on the Judiciary Committee. She is an excellent nominee with impeccable qualifications, and I am looking forward to her hearing.
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) March 20, 2022
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has been among those launching self-righteous criticisms surrounding Biden’s originally announced intention to select a Black woman for the court. Ridiculously, Cruz complained that the “fact that [Biden is] willing to make a promise at the outset that it must be a Black woman — I gotta say, that’s offensive. Black women are, what, 6 percent of the U.S. population? He’s saying to 94 percent of Americans, ‘I don’t give a damn about you. You are ineligible.’.. It’s actually an insult to Black women. If he came and said, ‘I’m gonna put the best jurist on the court,’ and he looked at a number of people, and he ended up nominating a Black woman, he could credibly say, ‘Okay, I’m nominating the person who’s most qualified.’ He’s not even pretending to say that. He’s saying, if you’re a white guy, tough luck. If you’re a white woman, tough luck — you don’t qualify.” It wasn’t about some kind of arbitrary quota; at issue, rather, is the fact that no Black woman has ever been on the U.S. Supreme Court, despite their portion of the general population. If that’s not a glaring issue to be fixed, then what is?
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's parents are seated in the front row.
Her father was the attorney for the Miami-Dade School Board. Her mother was the principal of New World School of the Arts, a magnet public high school. pic.twitter.com/retIRGVOGw
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) March 21, 2022