Ketanji Brown Jackson actually said a couple of things that should make the other side happy....
July 19, 2022
Now that KBJ has been sworn in as a Supreme Court justice to replace the justice she clerked for way back when, Stephen Breyer, it’s time to take note of a couple of things she said during her confirmation hearing.
They may make her critics and skeptics happy that she’s there.
(By the way, she isn’t alone on the current Court replacing who she clerked for. Both John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh clerked for the justices they replaced–William Rehnquist and Anthony Kennedy, respectively.)
There were a couple of things Jackson said when she was testifying that seemed very interesting, under all the political circumstances.
Like when she was asked by Senator Marsha Blackburn if she could define what a woman is.
Brown said she couldn’t, that she wasn’t a biologist.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Jackpot!
Her answer was certainly a welcome one for Blackburn and her idealogical colleagues. Jackson apparently thinks being a woman is based in biology!
Even though she didn’t mention that the biological basics for womanhood is having two X chromosomes (men have an X and a Y), she did maintain that being a woman was centered in their biology. And not within the more esoteric realms of head and heart, she implied–by maintaining that you have to be a biologist to understand that. And she wasn’t one.
Another time during the hearing, the former public defender and short-term member of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, said that although she hasn’t had much experience ruling on Constitutional issues (which her coming assignment should require), she did say what she’d do when faced with a case invoking the US Constitution: “I’m looking at original documents. I am focusing on the original public meaning because I am constrained to interpret the text. Sometimes that’s enough to resolve the issue. . . .”
So maybe she’s going to be a dyed in the wool originalist after all? And maybe with a little time and seasoning, who knows? And maybe becoming besties with the other young woman and mom she now works with–Amy Coney Barrett? Who knows what can happen?
Maybe ACB and KBJ will rub off on each other. I sense they will watch each other. And try to figure each other out.
Why wouldn’t they?