Already nicknamed and with 2 Harvard degrees, is Justice next for KBJ?

(PARIS, France) The author viewed 20-plus hours of confirmation testimony in preparing this essay. This is the first of a series of articles on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. The question has to be asked about the potential and unprecedented near gender-balance on the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) as Senators consider the nomination of Judge KBJ. Whether having 4 of 9 posts held by women will be symbolic or game-changing for American life, the Court of the future is no one’s grandfather’s Court, anymore.

“Having four women on the Supreme Court would mark a symbolic shift, but in my view not a substantive shift in the power to decide controversial issues affecting personal rights in the U.S.,” says Felicia Henderson, a Paris-based Harvard Law School graduate currently researching and advising on racial equity and inclusion in multi-national corporations.

Like the nominee to the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Ms. Henderson is African American. Follow Ms. Henderson's work on Twitter @FelHenderson and on LinkedIn.

“I emphasize appearance because the four female justices cannot and should not be viewed as an aligned monolith […] Seeing each female justice as an individual with other social identities – race, family status, sexual orientation, religious belief, etc. – that intersect with biological sex is so important to avoiding the essentialist trap that this so-called “woman’s block” implies.”

Symbolic or otherwise, a “woman’s block” in highly-placed, highly-paid, and lifetime-appointed institutional roles triggers fear in some U.S. Senators. Some people who oppose Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination fall into that same camp.?

“The public will say, Who do they think they are?” warns Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) on Day 2 of the hearings. See photo, left.

Directing his words to Judge KBJ, Sen. Cornyn added:

“As a member of the U.S. Supreme Court, you will be bound by nothing. You will be unaccountable to the voters (pregnant pause) and the voters, no matter what they have said, are irrelevant because we, the five members of the Supreme Court, are going to decide what the law of the land should be and anybody who disagrees with it will be labeled a bigot or accused of discrimination.”

More from Sen. Cornyn:?“You see why this is a concern.”?

Sen. John Kennedy (Louisiana) on Day 2: Can you understand why some Americans go, ‘Wait a minute. These are unenumerated rights. Are justices interpreting the Constitution or are they just deciding a right when they get five votes and it’s just a moral conviction?’

Judge KBJ: Yes, Senator. I do understand.?

Sen. Kennedy: How do we know that if you get on the court you won’t say, ‘Congress can’t get anything done and there are all these issues we need to address, and so I think the United States Supreme Court ought to create all these rights through the 9th Amendment.’?What would you say to that?

Judge KBJ: I have record as a judge … and that my record demonstrates how I handle cases. I’m not in a position to hypothesize a circumstance in which a case appeared that raised a question about the recognition about an unenumerated right …?

Here’s a list of up-close and personal issues (that Senators who call for small government) questioned Mrs. Brown Jackson about in the area of “judicial restraint.”?

intimacy and contraception

child-rearing and grandparents visitation rights ?

marriage?

assisted suicide

?“I hope you’ll keep this in mind, Judge, if you get confirmed. This is what judicial restraint is all about and I think part of the division in our country. America is big, wide open, diverse, sometimes dysfunctional, sometimes imperfect, but basically a good country. We?have different values. That's part of our diversity and I think our country works because of our system of federalism.”?

--Sen. Kennedy (Day 2)

View the exhibition called All Together for the Camera:?A History of the Supreme Court’s Group Photograph, featuring SCOTUS photos through the years, like 1976's, left. Workers who prepare the Marshal Building sit in for the justices so that the lighting can be set.

Surprise, surprise--states rights shows its familiar face

Senators Cornyn, Kennedy, and North Carolina’s Thom Tillis stand for states rights over federal laws, and represented their positions in the hearings. Judge KBJ responded with a basic civics lesson, emphasizing that the framers of the U.S. Constitution, people who experienced the British monarchy, set out to split the governmental branches “to prevent tyranny,”—her words. ?

Thusly, the co-equal branches are described at house.gov: ?

• Legislative, defined in Article I, Congress “makes all laws, declares war, regulates interstate and foreign commerce and controls taxing and spending policies.”
• Executive, defined in Article II, the President, advisors, various departments, and agencies enforce the laws of the land.?
• Judicial, defined in Article III, the Supreme Court interprets laws.?

In KBJ’s methodology as a judge, each branch “will operate within its own sphere.”?

Cornyn’s ‘Super Duper’ concern on Day 2

Sen. Cornyn: There is a means by which the Court can correct their mistakes by overruling previous decisions? … Have you ever heard a federal judge talk about Super Duper precedent or Super precedent?

Judge KBJ: I have not.

Sen. Cornyn: I've heard it here in the Judiciary Committee on a number of occasions when somebody has a favorite case or outcome that they don’t want to see the Supreme Court revisit.?

Why did Mr. Cornyn cite these landmarks as examples? Plessy v. Ferguson which was overturned with Brown v. Topeka Board of Education and Dred Scott v. Sandford which was overturned by passage of the 13 and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution?These historical decisions and a review of the co-equal structure of the U.S. government could be foundations for a reading list--using only government documents, such as loc.gov as sources. More at?https://www.loc.gov/rr/program//bib/ourdocs/dredscott.html

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A Paris-based American, Nita Wiggins teaches graduate-level journalism students how to research and think critically. Her Civil Rights Baby: My Story of Race, Sports, and Breaking Barriers in American Journalism will soon be on the shelf at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta, Ga. More on nitawiggins.com??