Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was nominated to replace Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
Critics were not pleased when President Joe Biden announced he planned to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. Republican Ted Cruz stated, “That’s offensive. Black women are what, 6% of the US population? He’s saying to 94% of Americans, I don’t give a damn about you. You are ineligible. And it’s actually an insult to black women”.
The truth is, Black women are often overlooked and underpaid for doing the same job as their White counterparts. Black women are often less likely to be associated with the concept of a “typical woman” and are viewed as more similar to Black men than to White women, which may lead to some antiracist and feminist movements failing to advocate for the rights of Black women, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. The report goes on to say, “Black women are often overlooked in people’s conversations about racism and sexism even though they face a unique combination of both of these forms of discrimination simultaneously,” said lead researcher Stewart Coles, a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan’s Department of Communication and Media. “This ‘intersectional invisibility’ means that movements that are supposed to help Black women may be contributing to their marginalization.”
President Biden's decision to nominate a qualified candidate to the Supreme Court that may have been overlooked solely due to skin color should be saluted.
Judge Ketanji Credentials:
According to the United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson received her commission as a United States Circuit Judge in June of 2021. From 2013 until 2021, she served a United States District Judge, and until December of 2014, she also served as a Vice Chair and Commissioner on the United States Sentencing Commission.
Prior to her four years of service on the Sentencing Commission, Judge Jackson worked for three years as Of Counsel at Morrison & Foerster LLP, with a practice that focused on criminal and civil appellate litigation in both state and federal courts, as well as cases in the Supreme Court of the United States. Before joining Morrison & Foerster LLP, Judge Jackson served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the appeals division of the Office of the Federal Public Defender in the District of Columbia. Before that appointment, Judge Jackson worked as an Assistant Special Counsel at the Sentencing Commission and as an associate with two law firms (one specializing in white-collar criminal defense, and the other focusing on the negotiated settlement of mass-tort claims). Judge Jackson also served as a law clerk to three federal judges: Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the Supreme Court of the United States, Judge Bruce M. Selya of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and Judge Patti B. Saris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Judge Jackson is currently a member of the Judicial Conference Committee on Defender Services, as well as the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and the Council of the American Law Institute. She also currently serves on the board of Georgetown Day School and the United States Supreme Court Fellows Commission.
Judge Jackson received a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1996, where she served as a supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review. She received an A.B., magna cum laude, in Government from Harvard-Radcliffe College in 1992.
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