Listen, child pornography is bad.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s hard to imagine there\u2019s a \u201cpolitical issue\u201d about children used in pornography. There is no \u201caffirmative\u201d side.\u00a0\u00a0But then there’s Josh Hawley, Senator from Missouri with\u00a0Stanford undergraduate and Yale Law degrees. He seems to think that he\u2019s on \u201cone side\u201d, and Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson (Harvard undergraduate and Law) is on the other.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This isn\u2019t an issue.\u00a0\u00a0Judge Jackson is as opposed to child pornography as Hawley. But the Senator thinks he can \u201ccatch\u201d the Judge as \u201csoft on kiddy porn\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 His case in point, an eighteen year old high school kid who collected enormous amounts of child pornography on his computer.\u00a0\u00a0 Judge Jackson sentenced him to three months in Federal Prison (as an eighteen year old), then decades of community controls and sanctions.\u00a0\u00a0But Senator Hawley thinks she went too easy on him, and is trying to score political points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hawley isn\u2019t the only one stuck on child pornography.\u00a0\u00a0Senators Cotton and Cruz are also \u201cconcerned\u201d about where the future Justice stands.\u00a0\u00a0And while her record shows, that she is as abhorrent of children being used for pornography as anyone, it\u2019s not going to be enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because it\u2019s the only \u201cwedge\u201d these Republicans can find to try to attack her nomination. And attack they must. They have to prove to the future Republican voters of the 2024 Presidential election that they are on the \u201cright\u201d (get it?) side. And they, along with their comrades-in-hurt Lindsey Graham and Chuck Grassley, want \u201cpayback\u201d. Payback for Democrats fighting tooth-and-nail against Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, the last two Trump appointees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Child pornography is a legal issue, and Judge Jackson\u2019s long record is \u201cfair game\u201d, I guess.\u00a0\u00a0But Lindsey Graham demanding that Judge Jackson rate her Christianity on a \u201cscale of 1 to 10\u201d. That would get any \u201cnormal\u201d job interview thrown right to the Human Relations department.\u00a0\u00a0Graham doesn\u2019t really care about Jackson\u2019s faith.\u00a0\u00a0He is getting his \u201cpayback\u201d for the Amy Coney Barrett hearings. That’s when questions arose about her adherence to a particularly extreme Christian religious sect \u2013 far different than Jackson\u2019s \u201cmainstream\u201d Christianity.\u00a0\u00a0But Graham too must score his \u201cpoints\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So who was the winner of the Jackson\u2019s first day (and night) of nomination hearings? Judge Jackson, the legal scholar who will become the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. She parried with the Senators, carefully keeping her cool even when questioned about whether a school where she serves on the board teaches that babies are born \u201cbiased\u201d. Senator Cruz made sure that the other Republican \u201cwedge\u201d \u2013 the erroneously named \u201cCritical Race Theory\u201d issue \u2013 was placed in front of the first Black woman to be nominated for the Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ketanji Brown Jackson echoes Jackie Robinson, the first Black man to play in major league baseball. When the Brooklyn Dodgers brought Robinson \u201cup\u201d to the team, it wasn\u2019t just because of his skills on the ballfield. Robinson, a UCLA grad (with varsity letters in four sports) and 2nd Lieutenant in the World War II US Army, was able to keep his cool in spite of the ongoing racial slurs and discrimination from the other teams and the grandstand. In the same way, the underlying racism of some of the Republican questioners hasn\u2019t cracked Judge Jackson\u2019s demeanor, even after almost twelve hours of questioning. Both showed grace under pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barring some incredibly damaging revelation, or, Joe Manchin losing his mind, Ketanji Brown Jackson will become the first Black woman on the US Supreme Court.\u00a0\u00a0Her arrival won\u2019t change the balance of the Court. The six conservative Justices are in full control of the Court\u2019s decision making.\u00a0\u00a0But she will bring a unique perspective to the conference, as a woman, a Black person, but most importantly as a brilliant legal scholar. She is one of the best, bar none, in the nation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republican and Democratic Senators can argue who \u201cpoliticized\u201d the nomination process. Republicans go back as far as the failed Robert Bork nomination in the 1980\u2019s, Democrats look at McConnell\u2019s manipulation of the process in the last years of both President Obama\u2019s and Trump\u2019s administration. There is no question that there\u2019s enough blame to spread around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it\u2019s unfortunate that we cannot celebrate how far the United States has come. Judge Jackson, is one of the top jurists in the nation, regardless of race or gender. The United States will be better for her being on the Bench. And she is proving her judicial \u201ctemperament\u201d every additional hour she sits at the witness table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"