Today the Republicans went for the jugular ….
Their words have been directed at ‘race’….
That is something Republican US Senator are carrying the water for their parties attack on effort by this coiu8n try to change it’s ways dealing with minorities….
The ‘old school’ culture favoring white America IS slipping away….
The guardians are attacking one who before them who IS changing that culture….
American minorities have ALWAYS had to go that extra mile….
Turn on tomorrow’s last day of this before the Senate Judical Committee…
It plays out on the TV in realtime…..
The vote for the commiteee to pass the judges name up to entire Senate will be April 1….
Brown Jackson should have no problem getting to the vote and getting approved for postion on the High Court …
But as the first Black woman nominated to the high court, Jackson also bears certain burdens that have become evident during her confirmation hearings. She has been subjected to questioning from some Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee that has been explicitly or implicitly all about race.
She has been asked about critical race theory and the history of America’s slaveholding past and whether she has been too lenient in her sentencing as a trial judge — issues that are cultural flash points in today’s caustic political debate but the first two of which have little to do with the actual work of the Supreme Court.
The grilling she has experienced is a reminder that Black Americans are seen and often judged through a different lens than White Americans — and that they also have life experiences that White Americans do not share.
The questioning has ranged through other predictable issues: abortion, gun rights, her representation as a public defender, court-packing, her judicial philosophy. But the most charged exchanges dealt with issues that have clear racial components.
References to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. punctuated the preliminary comments from some GOP senators. Lawmakers cited King’s speech at the 1963 March on Washington, where he said he had a dream that one day “all Americans will be judged, not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Republicans have used King to express their solidarity with those sentiments before then using it as a shield behind which they pummeled Jackson with questions that come with racial overtones.
On Wednesday, she went through a contentious exchange with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) over her sentencing practices in cases involving pedophiles and pornography, with Graham repeatedly interrupting her as she tried to answer and committee chairman Sen. Richard J. Durbin asking Graham to let her speak….
Sen Booker offers support to Judge Jackson….
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson showed the emotional toll of two days of intense questioning when she wiped away tears late Wednesday afternoon as Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) broke some of the tension in the room by declaring how grateful he feels for her nomination to the Supreme Court.
Booker pushed back hard against Republican colleagues on the committee who relentlessly challenged her sentencing of several child pornography offenders while she served as a district judge and accused her of letting child predators off the hook.
“This is a new low,” Booker exclaimed, asking why Republicans didn’t raise any of the same issues when she was confirmed with bipartisan support to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last year….
Durbin rides herd on Ted Cruz ‘s questioning….
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) cut off Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the midst of a series of questions about Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s handling of child pornography cases, a subject that Cruz and fellow White House hopeful, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), have focused on extensively.
Durbin and Cruz got into a testy exchange after Durbin banged his gavel and informed his colleague that his 20 minutes of allotted time had expired. Cruz protested that Durbin had taken up some of his time by interjecting during his increasingly tense back and forth with Jackson.
Durbin at one point even advised Jackson that she didn’t need to answer Cruz’s questions because the Republican senator kept on interrupting her when she provided answers that didn’t directly address the details of the cases he was talking about…..
Republicans’ line that Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is soft on crime and child pornographers isn’t landing with centrist Democrats. Just ask Sen. Jon Tester.
“I think it’s bullshit. Look at the source,” said the Montana Democrat, referring to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who first raised the issue of Jackson’s child pornography sentencing record. Coming from someone else, Tester said “it may have more credibility. The guy’s running for president, and he says outlandish things.”…
image…The NY Times