Trigger Warning: Mentions Child Pornography and Sexual Assault.
Anyone up to date with current events in America has heard of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings as a Supreme Court nominee.
One would expect the questions asked to Jackson to be focused on her qualifications or capacity to serve as a Supreme Court justice. Instead, a few Republican senators have resorted to unreasonable behavior, manipulative tactics and an overall lack of decorum.
These trials and tribulations that a Black woman like Jackson must go through only serve as tools for Republicans to tear her down, get a poke at her and viciously scrutinize her.
I can assure you, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas wouldn’t even bat an eye at a white Supreme Court nominee. Jackson’s view on critical race theory would decide what conservatives were already thinking of her: she’s another pawn of the radical left.
Unfortunately, the shameless and bigoted remarks from the GOP paint a bleak picture for the future of Congress, which stooped low, as they allowed such a circus to take place.
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s remarks would be the start of endless accusations of Jackson’s ethical principles, especially the sentencing of cases related to child pornography.
Hawley went as far as to wrongfully state that she sympathized with the accused of such heinous crimes.
Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who’s responsible for conducting judicial nominations, was quick to debunk Hawley’s efforts of defamation. Durbin’s official website states that Jackson is within the judicial mainstream, meaning that she imposes the harshest sentences according to Congress’ penalties for guilty defendants on those charges.
The Chairman’s press release further explains that “a judge who Hawley recommended for the Eastern District of Missouri, Sarah Pitlyk, in 2019 sentenced a person convicted of possessing child pornography to 60 months, well below the 135-168-month sentence recommended.”
Hawley thinks he’s entitled to make baseless claims against Jackson when he’s supporting judges that don’t even do the bare minimum to combat child predators. Labeling Jackson as a sex offender sympathizer is a pathetic attempt at attacking her character.
If Hawley wants to keep sexual aggressors from making life-changing decisions for our country, examining the multiple sexual assault scandals of some of the Supreme Court justices would be a good place to start.
Then again, that wouldn’t make him any less of a hypocrite and liar.
Cruz also tried to taint Jackson’s reputation with the book “Antiracist Baby” by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, one of the titles on critical race theory allegedly taught at Georgetown Day School, whose board Jackson serves on.
I found it most disgusting when Cruz found it appropriate to ask her if she thought babies were racist as he vigorously fiddled with poster-sized pictures of the children’s book.
The inconceivable line of questioning drew a long pause from Jackson, who likely contemplated why a woman of color who has excelled at every single level of her field of work such as herself had to sit there and listen to Cruz spill the most horrendous verbal vomit in existence.
It’s a surface-level assessment of what insecure men really think of independent and strong women.
Republican senators are attacking Jackson even though she is more qualified than most of the Supreme Court justices, feeling threatened by her success and composure at their constant attacks.
Most importantly, they’re afraid of what her addition to the Supreme Court would mean for key constitutional issues.
If you haven’t gotten the chance to see anything other than the trainwreck of the Republican senators questioning of Jackson, here’s a transcript of Jackson and Democratic Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff having a professional discussion about key Constitutional protections.
President Joe Biden’s nomination of Jackson is an attempt to make the Supreme Court mirror the diversity of the American people. Yet, the blatant racism and sexism that she had been subjected to by many Republican senators show that they’re not interested in respecting or giving minority groups a voice.
Jackson deserves a fair chance and the treatment of any other Supreme Court nominee.
