Why Jackson will be great addition to Supreme Court
Recognizing that “We the People” benefit most when we use the tremendous talents of all of America’s diverse populous, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have nominated the extraordinarily qualified Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court in its 233-year history.
Jackson, a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, would succeed retiring Justice Stephen Breyer if she is confirmed by a majority vote in the Senate.
As the long-time slogan of the United Negro College Fund states: “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Yet, like much of American society, our federal judiciary has a long history of wasting, indeed ignoring, the minds and great brainpower of many of our citizens.
Until 1967, only white males sat on the Supreme Court. That year, 178 years after the Supreme Court was created as part of the Judiciary Act of 1789, President Lyndon Johnson nominated the groundbreaking civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall to be the first Black Supreme Court justice.
The high court remained an all-male preserve until 1981, when President Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O’connor to be the first female justice.
Now, finally, Jackson has been nominated to join the 108 white men, two Black men, four white women and one Hispanic woman who have served on our Supreme Court.
There is no doubt in my mind that many highly qualified Black women could and should have served on our nation’s highest court long, long ago. Racism and sexism, however, barred them from even being considered.
And although, sadly, we cannot turn back the clock on the exclusionary practices of our nation’s past, we must move forward to replace this unjust history with the inclusion necessary to build a better and more equitable future for all Americans.
On the merits, the Senate should confirm Jackson. A Harvard Law School graduate, where she was supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review, Jackson served as a U.S. district judge in Washington for eight years before she was confirmed by the Senate to her current post in June on a 53-44 vote, picking up the support of three Senate Republicans. She earlier worked as a public defender and served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Significantly, Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., has already rebuked his Republican colleagues for complaining that it was “inappropriate” for Biden to announce that he was going to put a Black woman on the Supreme Court.
Mcconnell noted that “President Reagan promised to put a woman on the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’connor. President Trump promised to put a woman on the Supreme Court when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away, so I’m not complaining about that.”
And Mcconnell said Republicans would consider the nominee fairly with “the kind of process I think you can be proud of.”
I hope Mcconnell follows through on these reasonable statements by encouraging his Republican colleagues to act in a similarly reasonable way toward Jackson during her confirmation process.
Only 70 Black women have served as federal judges
According to the Federal Judicial Center, only 70 Black women have been federal judges in American history. That’s less than 2% of the 3,843 judges who have served on the federal bench.
Shockingly, there wasn’t a single Black female federal judge until 1966, when President Johnson nominated Constance Baker Motley to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. To his tremendous credit, even before nominating Jackson to serve on the Supreme Court, Biden had already nominated 11 Black women to federal judgeships, raising the percentage of federal judgeships held by Black women from 4.5% when he took office to 5.7% (Black women comprise 7.3% of the U.S. population).
The long-overdue addition of more Black judges, and specifically Black female judges, to our federal courts and finally to the Supreme Court will benefit America’s justice system.
Jackson would add vital perspective
If Jackson joins the Supreme Court, she will, among many other critical contributions, help her fellow justices better understand the damage that racism and sexism have had on American society from the perspective of someone who has experienced both inequities firsthand. This will be particularly important in cases dealing with topics such as reproductive rights, voting rights, equal opportunity, health care, immigration and criminal justice reform.
As most of you (hopefully) know, February is Black History Month. This month, which is drawing to a memorable close with Biden’s historic appointment of Jackson, isn’t just about the enormous and often unrecognized contributions Black Americans have made to our country since many of our ancestors were brought here in chains as slaves but about our future contributions.
President Biden, Vice President Harris and Jackson are on the cusp of making ever more wondrous American history. Jackson has earned her nomination to serve on the Supreme Court with her stellar record of accomplishment as a lawyer and judge, her dedication to our Constitution and the rule of law, and her brilliant judicial mind and temperament.
The Senate should confirm her forthwith for the good of our nation.
Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) is a member of USA TODAY’S Board of Contributors, an ABC News contributor, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and the King Endowed Chair in Public Policy at Howard University. She previously served as interim chair of the Democratic National Committee and of the DNC’S Voting Rights Institute, and managed Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000.