President Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court is historic. At the juncture of Black History Month and Women’s History Month, the announcement encapsulates the intersectional identity Jackson embodies. Of the 115 Supreme Court justices we have had, only five have been women and only three have been people of color. And Jackson is the first Black woman nominated to the court.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s lived experiences and expansive professional experience, including work as a federal public defender, will make the Supreme Court more inclusive. Tom Williams/Pool/Getty Images/TNS
Jackson’s nomination carries a promise of healing divisions in the country as a whole. Her lived experiences and expansive professional experience, including work as a federal public defender, will make the court more inclusive. In fact, she will be the first justice since Thurgood Marshall with criminal defense experience. But these same experiences will also make her work lonely and often unsupported. Jackson will likely face a lack of compassion from nomination to confirmation and beyond.
The inimitable bell hooks writes that “the heart of justice is truth-telling, seeing ourselves and the world the way it is rather than the way we want it to be.” On the Supreme Court, Jackson will be both an eminent legal scholar and an upright advocate for the law. Because of her public service, Jackson has a critical appreciation of the need for the justice system to be fair and impartial. She will also bring forward her experiences as a Black woman and public defender, which have historically been absent from conversations in the court. Jackson will give visibility to the people that justices have not had insight into before. Championing those who experience marginalization, she will tell truths absent from the court and the U.S. Constitution.
We cannot forget the fact that the U.S. Constitution was created by white men, for the benefit of white men. Jackson’s nomination to the court presents an opportunity to ensure that the rule of law is relevant to and serves all people. A representational Supreme Court is critical to maintaining a representational democracy. A more inclusive court ensures truth-telling is an integral part of lawmaking and judicial interpretation. It also enables the court to more readily see the world as it is and ensure the judicial system centers justice for everyone, and not the few.
As bell hooks teaches us, truth-telling is a door to justice and ultimately a door to healing, love and unity. Jackson’s nomination provides the potential for a more inclusive court and hope for a more inclusive and equitable country for not only Black women but for all Americans.
We would be remiss to ignore the challenges Jackson has ahead of her. Throughout the nomination process and her time on the court, Jackson will encounter firsthand the lovelessness and lack of compassion in the U.S. that have resulted in extreme social and political divisions. She will have to work tirelessly to prove her expertise in a way that white male justices never have had to do. It is critical that supporters of Jackson – supporters of representative democracy – stand alongside her and work to address systemic inequities.
Just as I stand in support of, and solidarity with, all Black women, girls and gender-expansive folks in this country who face loneliness and burdens because of their identities, I stand in support of, and solidarity with, Jackson throughout her nomination process and time on the court. I want to affirm Jackson with not only my understanding and respect but also my commitment to eliminating racism and empowering women in my life and work at YWCA Metropolitan Chicago.
To best honor and support Jackson’s historic nomination, we must all work to support expanded truth-telling and justice to rectify inequitable systems. She cannot do this alone.
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