President Biden has confirmed that he plans to appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court. Biden’s appointee, while inevitably liberal, will not alter the ideological demographics of the Court, since Breyer himself is a committed liberal jurist. The only impact Biden’s appointee will have is the prolonged liberal influence of that seat. Here are some names widely believed to be contenders for Breyer’s replacement:
Frontrunner: Ketanji Brown Jackson [...]
Other potential nominees are California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger and South Carolina U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs, who have little-to-no influential records of voting on major polarized matters. If the Biden administration is seeking a second run, they would be foolish to appoint a justice who didn’t have a record of strong liberal positions, and any appointee without a record would be wise to publicly declare their positions in the confirmation process. [...]
Isolating Supreme Court nominee qualifications to skin color isolates all other races, and that’s not a good look for any party. Martin Luther King Jr. would probably agree. His dream that people “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” really collides with the decision to disqualify hundreds of candidates, including minorities, to the High Court. Maybe ensuring the appointment of a black Supreme Court justice would be understandable if it were nearer MLK’s 1963 speech and a president was trying to expedite an anti-racist trajectory. It’s still inconsistent with MLK’s speech, but at least it’s more understandable.
But nearly 60 years post MLK’s speech? Appointing a black justice (or any race) exclusively in 2022 is nothing more than virtue signaling. We’ve had a black President, several black cabinet secretaries, black national security advisors, numerous black members of Congress, black Supreme Court justices, and a current black female Vice President. No race should be a disqualifier. In what world is it not racist to say, “I’m not going to appoint you because you’re Hispanic, Asian, white, etc.?” More virtue signaling came from Kimberly Tignor of the “She Will Rise” campaign for a black woman on the Supreme Court: “Appointing a Black woman to the Supreme Court is the next and necessary step towards a truer form of democracy and ensuring that our unique experiences and perspectives are represented.” Since when is it a Supreme Court Justice’s job to entertain the “unique experiences and perspectives” of the citizenry? It isn’t their job, it never has been their job, it never will be their job. The only perspective Supreme Court justices are to rule through is the perspective of the U.S. Constitution, not the perspectives of the citizenry." Justice Breyer’s retirement, Biden’s possible appointees, and why ‘race’ shouldn’t be a nomination factor – Standing for Freedom Center
No comments:
Post a Comment