The Right Way to Judge the Supreme Court

March 21 2022

Republicans should revisit their core beliefs via our founding documents in evaluating Ketanji Brown Jackson as a Supreme Court nominee.  Expressing concern with her "zealous" defense of terrorist suspects (all of whom were ultimately released) as an appointed federal public defender is anathema to our Constitution.  Any defendant before our laws is to be treated equally under our laws, and all our Senators and Congressmen regardless of party would expect zealous defense if accused of civil or criminal acts.  Judgement of her fitness to serve a life term on our highest court can be based on her public statements, her court decisions, her background, and her public actions.  Yet despite her ethnicity and gender, she is part of a type of segregation of Supreme Court candidates over the past several decades.

Commentators on NPR recently opined that the Court has failed not only to represent gender and ethnicity in its composition, but also broad diversity of background in the legal profes…