'Absolutely shameful': Tom Cotton condemned for suggesting Ketanji Brown Jackson would defend Nazis

[Celerity]

Arkansas Republican attacks Supreme Court nominee for serving as federal public defender

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tom-cotton-nazi-ketanji-brown-jackson-b2051767.html

In remarks to the US Senate opposing Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the US Supreme Court, Senator Tom Cotton said the judge “might have” defended Nazis during the Nuremberg trials.

“The last Judge Jackson left the Supreme Court to go to Nuremberg and prosecute the case against the Nazis,” the Arkansas senator said on 5 April, referring to former Justice Robert H Jackson, who was appointed chief counsel in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals.

“This Judge Jackson might have gone there to defend them,” Senator Cotton added.

Republican officials have scrutinised Judge Jackson’s record as a federal public defender representing detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, despite the right of counsel enshrined in the US Constitution. She also did not choose her clients.

snip

[wnylib]

1. Not only shameful, but just plain stupid.

[NCjack]

15. Harvard should cancel Sen. Cotton's law degree.

[PufPuf23]

19. If Cotton has a Harvard JD, he knows better.

Cotton is playing to the feeble minded and scared folks that vote for his sorry ass.

[TomSlick]

37. Exactly.

The folks back home in Arkansas see no justification for a lawyer representing a criminal defendant - of course, until Cousin Billy Bob is arrested for cooking meth.

Yes, I'm in Arkansas. I know my people.

[Mr.Bill]

40. Even the dumbest lawyers

understand that one of the requirements to convict someone is that they have adequate legal defense.

[Siwsan]

2. Tom Cotton seems to have no problem with insurrectionists

And what was his stand on the Charlottesville White Supremacist gathering participants?

[COL Mustard]

5. Back row.....

3rd from the left.

(OK, not really but probably in spirit.)

[jfz9580m]

48. ...

Okay I laughed..

[captain queeg]

3. Projection. As usual

[COL Mustard]

4. Under our system of law, EVERYONE is entitled to a vigorous defense

Even Nazis. Even Tom Cotton (although maybe the same thing?). That's why John Adams defended British troops accused in the Boston Massacre. He believed it even before we were a country. It's that fundamental a legal tenet in our system.

[Celerity]

9. +1000

[benfranklin1776]

29. Indeed you are correct and a point which must be emphasized...as Justice Jackson HIMSELF did

Of course a rank ignoramus with openly fascist aspirations like Cotton chooses to disregard the glaring truth in pursuit of his abhorrent, calculated character assassination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. I would say she has and will continue to magnificently uphold the core American values practiced by John Adams and Mister Justice Jackson in the same manner.

Jackson’s Nuremberg Experience

Jackson would later refer to his time at Nuremberg as some of “the most important, enduring, and constructive work of [his] life.” … Jackson’s Nuremberg experience spawned his “dispassionate approach” to criminal procedure, an approach rooted in the importance of judicial restraint and providing defendants with a neutral and fair procedural prosecutorial experience. The evolution and growth of this approach began with Jackson’s belief that Nazi war criminals deserved a full and fair trial supported by transparently available evidence. It is perhaps best summarized by Jackson’s own words, written to President Harry S. Truman in advance of the trials: The focus “is to determine the innocence or guilt of the accused after a hearing as dispassionate as the times and the horrors we deal with will permit, and upon a record that will leave our reasons and our motives clear.

https://judicature.duke.edu/articles/justice-jacksons-persistent-post-nuremberg-legacy/

[yardwork]

6. These people claim to follow the Constitution.

[Bettie]

14. In reality, the only part of the Constitution they care about

is that second amendment, and then only as a wedge to keep a small segment of the country violently opposed to the rest.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Tom Cotton seems to have forgotten that Robert A. Taft, a most conservative Senator,

defended the Nazi defendants by claiming there was no law against genocide before the Nuremberg Trials. The eldest son of a former president and Chief Justice of the USSC.


Condemnation of Nuremberg Trials.

Taft condemned the postwar Nuremberg Trials as victor's justice under ex post facto laws, in which the people who won the war were the prosecutors, the judges, and the alleged victims, all at the same time. Taft condemned the trials as a violation of the most basic principles of American justice and internationally accepted standards in favor of a politicized version of justice in which court proceedings became an excuse for vengeance against the defeated.[37]

I question whether the hanging of those, who, however despicable, were the leaders of the German people, will ever discourage the making of aggressive war, for no one makes aggressive war unless he expects to win. About this whole judgment there is the spirit of vengeance, and vengeance is seldom justice. The hanging of the eleven men convicted will be a blot on the American record, which we shall long regret.[38]

His opposition to the trials was criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike,[citation needed] and it is sometimes given as a reason for his failure to secure the Republican nomination for president.[citation needed] Other observers, such as Senator John F. Kennedy (in Profiles in Courage), applauded Taft's principled stand even in the face of great bipartisan criticism.[39]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Taft#Condemnation_of_Nuremberg_Trials

[Celerity]

8. excellent background

[lastlib]

10. Is Tom Colon needing a lawyer?

He is as disgusting as his remarks.

[gab13by13]

12. He sounds just like Putin.

It is amazing the similarities between Putin and Trump and the GQP and the Magats.

[lastlib]

17. "Appalling" is the word I would use.....

And I'm not sure I know enough adjectives to fully describe their evil.

[Ohiya]

11. He would be delighted...

if he really believed she would defend nazis.

[robbob]

13. Exactly!

“Then maybe I would have voted to confirm…”

[Emile]

16. He is showing us what we already know. He is playing up to the ignorant Republican base!

[Martin Eden]

18. John Adam's defended the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre

Because EVERYONE is entitled to legal representation!

[samsingh]

20. i don't think she would defend Tom Cotton

[JAD]

21. John Adams defended British soldiers after the Boston Massacre

.... and still became President of the United States.

[justhanginon]

22. I find it rather frightening that a person with Cotton's troubling psyche

was a commisioned officer in our armed forces and by his rank charged with being a leader of the men serving beneath him.

[liberalgunwilltravel]

25. And the reason he left the Army?

Because if he stayed, he would have likely been fragged.

[justhanginon]

32. Yeah, it can happen if his leadership decisions are perceived as a risk and

are putting his unit into unneccessarily dangerous situations which can get people killed because of his personal demons.

[raccoon]

23. Another stupid Republican trying to see how much of a jackass he can be. Nt

[liberalgunwilltravel]

24. No Tom.

No, Senator Cotton, I am fairly certain that there is no way Judge Jackson would defend a Nazi like you. So, you should be able to rest easy!

[niyad]

27. Exactly.

[niyad]

26. Traitor tom cottonmouth is at it again.

Should anyone wish to express their feelings: 202-224-2353. I already have.

[NoMoreRepugs]

28. Shame?? It's a badge of honor to be the whackiest in the new GOP.

[Marthe48]

30. He's confused

dopey, torquemada, usurper, beer bong, and kitchen aide are the ones who support nazis.

His side's picks.

[Pobeka]

31. Russians using the Nazi trope to attack Ukraine, Cotton using the Nazi trope to attack KBJ.

Why do I find that far more telling about who Cotton's close contacts are likely to be, and with who he aligns himself?

[vlyons]

33. It doesn't do to get upset by what the Tom Cottons of this world say, because

they grew up in a pig sty, and their parents didn't love them enough to teach them anything about virtue, honor, and basic human decency. As a Buddhist, I am taught to have compassion for the Tom Cottons of this world, because their very degenerate hateful speech marks them as ignorant of the law of karma. They are ignorant that a mind contaminated with hate and racism only brings more suffering into this world.

At best, the Tom Cottons of this world teach us how not to be. They teach us the importance of maintaining a peaceful mind, to guard our speech against vile hateful words. And they teach us to practice patience in the presence of those who have an undisciplined mind.

What will his children, and their children think of this guy? How much shame and suffering will they experience knowing that they are descended from such a hateful mean-spirited man?

"All experience is preceded by mind.
Led by mind. Created by mind.
Speak or act with a contaminated mind, and suffering follows.
Like the wheel of the wagon follows the hoof of the ox.

Speak or act with a peaceful mind, and happiness follows.
Like a never-departing shadow."

--- The Dhammapada

[BumRushDaShow]

34. And Cotton would not only defend the perps of the below (graphic)

but would be one of the ones who would gleefully be carrying out the lynching.

[tishaLA]

35. How long until Cotton starts prattling on about "de-nazification"?

They really are the Kremlin Kaucus.

[Celerity]

39. +1000

[hadEnuf]

36. A Jackson didn't go to Germany to defend Nazis but a Republican named Joe McCarthy sure did.

He defended the Nazi SS who perpetrated the Malmedy Massacre of US POW's during WW2.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/senator-mccarthys-nazi-problem-180975174/

[Gore1FL]

38. That is the job of a defense lawyer. Why is this even a criticism? nt

[Celerity]

44. Cotton is parroting the Putin line that the enemy (in this insane case, us Dems) are Nazi lovers

[SmallFry]

41. There are extremely good reasons to give "Nazi's" a great defense.

Now secondary to the fascist nature of his thought process, what a piece of shit.

[Patterson]

42. Tom Cotton - the Ted Cruz of Arkansas.

[Marcuse]

43. If the defendant is denied counsel there can be no conviction, Senator Anus.

[Turbineguy]

45. So he's complaining that

she would defend him?

[Chuuku Davis]

46. I am sorry my state elected this person

And boozman

[struggle4progress]

47. I'm glad I'm not in the mind of Cotton

Manners there are soon forgotten
Go away! Go away! Go away, Cotton man!