Does the Supreme Court Deserve Ketanji Brown Jackson?

[Nevilledog]

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Irin Carmon
@irin
I wrote about how if there’s any problem with Judge Jackson’s likely confirmation to the Court, it’s that she may give voters more confidence in an institution that currently doesn’t deserve it.

nymag.com
Does the Supreme Court Deserve Ketanji Brown Jackson?
The first Black female justice would lend the Court more credibility. That’s not necessarily a good thing.
7:43 AM · Mar 25, 2022

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/03/does-the-supreme-court-deserve-ketanji-brown-jackson.html

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https://archive.ph/W3RPc

Officially, the point of this week’s hearings at the Senate Judiciary Committee was to consider whether Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is worthy of the Supreme Court. A few days in, her own performance and the antics of both Republican senators and her future workplace across the street suggested the question is better inverted. Does the Supreme Court deserve her?

Depending on how much of the hearings you subjected yourself to, Wednesday morning was day three or 1 million, an interminable series of Republicans hammering the dignified Jackson with lurid and baseless claims about her rulings on child pornography or representation of Guantanamo detainees. That day, Democratic senator Patrick Leahy used his time to ask Jackson to reflect on how she, as the first Black woman to be nominated to the highest court, would strengthen its legitimacy.

Courts, she gamely explained, only gain their authority through the public’s consent. “When people see that the judicial branch is comprised of a variety of people who have taken the oath to protect the constitution and who are doing their best to interpret the laws consistent with that oath,” Jackson continued, “it lends confidence that the rulings that the court is handing down are fair and just, that that everything has been considered, that no one is being excluded because of a characteristic like race or gender or anything else.” If there’s any problem with Jackson’s likely confirmation to the Court, it’s that she may give voters more confidence in an institution that currently doesn’t deserve it.

The following hour, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority offered a rebuttal to Jackson in the form of an unsigned opinion from the so-called shadow docket, prematurely reaching out to strike down Wisconsin’s state legislative redistricting plan, which would have added another majority-Black district. The effect, explained voting-rights expert Rick Hasen, is an unbidden assault on the Voting Rights Act, another step in “killing off the last major protection for minority voters from discriminatory districting plans.” Six weeks ago, the conservative justices upheld Alabama’s map, which empowered Republicans at the expense of Black voters, on the theory that it was too close to the election to change things up; Wednesday, the Court decided over Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan’s dissent that now is a great time to meddle in Wisconsin if it also benefits Republicans. As Sarah Lipton-Lubet, executive director of Take Back the Court, put it to me, “It’s part of the ‘only Republicans can win’ doctrine.”

*snip*

[no_hypocrisy]

1. She may get both The Court and the Country

back on the right footing.

Sure, she's be writing minority opinions, but her dissents will be insightful and based on judicial precedence, and democratic ideals.

Maybe WE don't deserve her.

[Aristus]

2. Getting a replacement for Thomas will help get the country back on the right footing, too.

[Lovie777]

3. The American people do . .. . .

[crickets]

7. 👆👆

This is the answer. It's about the people, and the American people do deserve Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Her talent and integrity, however, will never erase the deficits of Thomas, Kavanaugh, or Barrett. That's not how it works, and Irin Carmon does a bit of a disservice to the American people by assuming that so many would be unable to make the distinction.

[Mr.Bill]

4. What they deserve is to have

her be the Chief Justice one day.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

5. This so this

We need her to be chief justice one day

[Maine Abu El Banat]

6. The Supreme Court may not deserve her

But they sure need her!