Ketanji Brown Jackson v. Clarence Thomas

I support the nomination and confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court of the United States. I support her confirmation because of her impeccable credentials, inspiring story, hard work, sacrifice, and the historic nature of being the first African American woman as the 116th associate justice of the country’s highest court.

The last time a black person was confirmed to the Supreme Court was Clarence Thomas, in 1991. In his contentious confirmation hearing he was accused of sexually harassing his work colleague Anita Hill; many believed — and still believe — that he lied when he denied Hill’s claims. He was confirmed by a narrow majority of 52 to 48.

Judge Jackson was also confirmed by a slim majority, due to the political dynamics of the U.S. Senate. 

I do not attempt to compare Justices Jackson or Thomas. But Justice Thomas was not widely celebrated in the African American community. The NACCP opposed his nomination before the October confirmation hearing. His relative novice judicial career and conservative ideology were not the ideal replacement for civil rights stalwart Justice Thurgood Marshall. It was Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, the Lyndon B. Johnson nominee who served as chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, that was the judicial heir apparent to Justice Marshall.

It was widely assumed the appointment to replace Justice Marshall would be a man; after all, it had been nearly 25 years since Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court, was confirmed to a federal judgeship.

Since then, according to the Pew Research Center, “fewer than a third of all Black judges ever appointed (29%, or 70 of 239) have been women.” Moreover, “Only 13 have served at the appellate court level — the powerful regional courts that are one step below the Supreme Court.” The report continues: “Democrats Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, who each served eight years in the White House, appointed 26 and 15 Black women to the federal judiciary, respectively. Among Republican presidents, George W. Bush appointed eight Black women during his eight-year tenure. George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump each appointed two during their four years in office.”

As a heuristic exercise, would a conservative black woman nominee be equally embraced and celebrated? It was a Democratic Senate that ultimately confirmed Justice Thomas to the court.  Such musing is not politically feasible in our current political reality, nor is the thought to suggest that black communities don’t support or embrace conservatives. Gen. Colin Powell, former secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), are prime examples of the embrace of black conservatives.

But for Justice Thomas, his voting record has cemented the cynicism many blacks feel toward him. He is the first Supreme Court justice to openly criticize the high court’s landmark civil rights ruling, Brown v. Board of Education. And he joined a 2013 high court decision, Shelby County v. Holder, that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act. In his three decades on the court, Clarence Thomas, the longest-serving current justice, is the most reliable conservative vote.

Certainly, Justice Jackson will have a critical impact — not only as the first and only Black woman on the court to have served as a public defender but also as one of two Black justices serving at the same time for the first time.

Whether making good on this campaign promise will be enough to galvanize the Democratic base, particularly Black voters, is yet to be seen. The party has not delivered on signature campaign and legislative goals such as police reform and new federal voting rights protections. Perhaps Democrats can start to focus on the federal judiciary, as their rival Republicans spur their base to do — the entire direction for generations to come is genuinely at stake.

Will Justice Jackson’s presence on the high court be enough to improve the lives of Black voters where it counts — their pocketbooks, around the household table, in their communities? Or, will Jackson’s confirmation galvanize the GOP heading into the midterms this fall?

Time will tell, but in the meantime, political and legal analysts will be paying close attention to the opinions and comments between Justices Jackson and Thomas. 

Quardricos Bernard Driskell is an adjunct professor of legislative politics at The George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management. Follow him on Twitter @q_driskell4