Stephen Breyer to retire at the end of this court session.

[lpetrich]

Heartland Signal on Twitter: "REPORTER: "You would be okay with the Supreme Court leaving the issue of interracial marriage to the states?"

SEN. MIKE BRAUN (R-IN): "Yes. If you are not wanting the Supreme Court to weigh in on issues like that, you are not going to be able to have your cake and eat it too." (vid link)" / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Can journalists please not pretend it’s normal for a US Senator to declare that the Supreme Court was wrong to legalize interracial marriage, he’s OK w/it being illegal again, his “new” statement not walking anything back during a SCOTUS nomination that he’d be voting on? Thanks." / Twitter
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Senator Braun’s statement does not walk back what he said.

He needs to go on the record to clarify whether he believes states should be allowed to reinstate anti-miscegenation laws, and whether it’s his belief SCOTUS should overturn Loving v. Virginia as he does w/ Roe v. Wade" / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

Molly Jong-Fast on Twitter: "It’s 2022 and senator Lindsey Graham asked this question during a senate supreme court hearing. (vid link)" / Twitter
LG asking KBJ what her faith was.
then
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "When you’re far more qualified than the person determining your qualifications " / Twitter

EthanPlaysLive on Twitter: "@DanPriceSeattle @AOC Imagine the outrage from these guys if Judge Jackson had responded "angrily" to anything they said. (pic link)" / Twitter

"My family and my name have been totally and permanently destroyed by vicious and false additional accusations," an angry Kavanaugh told the committee in a fiery opening statement that he said he had prepared himself on Wednesday night and showed only to a former clerk.

Milo M. on Twitter: "@MollyJongFast @AOC (link) After confirming Kavanaugh, Graham’s principal campaign committee received a $10,000 contribution from attorney William Burck, who withheld 100,000+ pages of documentation from Kavanaugh’s tenure as Staff Secretary. Graham isn’t paid to ask good questions." / Twitter
noting
Milo M. on Twitter: "
Condensed timeline:
1. Guy clerks for Kennedy.
2. Kennedy announces his retirement.
3. Kavanaugh’s announced as Kennedy’s replacement.
4. Guy’s hired by Bush to bury Kavanaugh’s documents.
5. Graham has a meltdown while confirming Kavanaugh.
6. Guy gives Graham’s campaign $10K.
" / Twitter


Din Djarin on Twitter: "@AOC "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

Why is a person's religion, or their adherence to that religion a qualifier for if you can get a job? Also, Separation of Church and State much...?" / Twitter

Debbie on Twitter: "@AOC (pic link)" / Twitter

For overqualified women who have to remain calm, friendly, knowledgeable and professional in front of underqualified men Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer.

Jenny Platypus on Twitter: "@DNS107 @AOC Omg yes she had like a dozen different emotions she was fighting back a queen" / Twitter

 

[TSwizzle]

It makes sense you would find it laughable to defer to other's expertise in matters over which you are not personally expert.

I don't defer to "experts" when it comes to knowing what a woman is, I've been married to a woman for 25+ years.

{snip}This whole exchange makes me more, not less, convinced of the suitabilty of this judge for the position she has been nominated for. {snip}

No doubt.

 

[TomC]

"For overqualified women who have to remain calm, friendly, knowledgeable and professional in front of underqualified men Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer."

Ha ha
This reminds me of someone pointing out that Ginger Rodgers did everything that Fred Astaire did. Only backwards and in high heels.
Tom

 

[lpetrich]

Lindsey Graham's grilling of Ketanji Brown Jackson's faith backfired - Hemant Mehta in OnlySky - "Graham didn’t expose a double-standard about Ketanji Brown Jackson’s faith. He exposed the GOP’s inability to handle faith responsibly."

During the second day of her confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson had to put up with the expected barrage of Republicans’ predictable and theatrical questions, designed more for the FOX News coverage than learning anything useful about the nominee.

Also for playing to their base in preparation for the upcoming elections.

HM then speculated that some Republicans wanted payback for how some Democrats questioned Amy Coney Barrett.

GRAHAM: … What faith are you, by the way?

JACKSON: Senator, I am, um, Protestant…

GRAHAM: Mmm… okay…

JACKSON: Non-denominational.

GRAHAM: Okay. Could you fairly judge a Catholic?

JACKSON: Senator, I have a record of… judging everyone…

GRAHAM: I am just asking this question because… How important is your faith to you?

JACKSON: Senator, personally, my faith is very important. But as you know, there’s no religious test in the Constitution under Article VI and…

GRAHAM: And there will be none with me.

JACKSON: … And it’s very important to set aside one’s personal views about things, in the role of a judge.

GRAHAM: I couldn’t agree with you more. And I believe you can. So, on a scale of 1 to 10, how faithful would you say you are, in terms of religion? You know, I go to church probably three times a year, so that speaks poorly of me. Or do you attend church regularly?

JACKSON: Well, senator, I am reluctant to talk about my faith in this way just because I want to be mindful of the need for the public to have confidence in my ability to separate out my personal views.

HM then praised for her for giving great answers and staying calm during all that questioning.

Graham went on to explain why he was going through this line of questioning. He didn’t particularly care about any of her answers; he merely wanted to expose what he believed was a double standard: If those questions about religion were uncomfortable for Jackson, then why was it okay when other senators questioned the views of Amy Coney Barrett when she was up for federal judgeships?

Payback, pure and simple.

 

[lpetrich]

Hemant Mehta then argued that quizzing ACB about her religion was fair game.

In 2017, when Barrett was a nominee to become a federal judge, she was asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee about how her Catholics beliefs might influence her decision making. It was an absolutely fair line of questioning because Barrett had written papers discussing how Catholics like her should deal with parts of the law they don’t agree with.

One stood out above the rest: Barrett had published a law review article about how Catholic judges should handle death penalty cases since the Church opposed the practice. As the Freedom From Religion Foundation notes, Barrett “said they ought to recuse themselves rather than violate their religious beliefs. In other words, Barrett herself concluded that religious belief might prohibit Catholic judges’ from doing their job.”

...
That’s why, when Sen. Dianne Feinstein inartfully said to her, “The dogma lives loudly within you,” referencing how Barrett would likely try to overturn Roe v. Wade, Republicans jumped on it as an example of how Democrats were anti-faith. They ignored the context. (They always ignore the context.)

Instead of having a discussion about how a judge’s faith might prevent her from respecting precedent, which was the only concern, Republicans pretended people were mocking Barrett for being religious, period.

...
Incidentally, during Barrett’s confirmation hearings, it was Graham who asked her about her faith more directly than anyone else.

 

[Copernicus]

LOL;

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson refused to define the word 'woman' during the fiery second day of her confirmation hearing conducted by the Senate's Judiciary Committee. 'Do you agree with Justice Ginsburg that there are physical differences between men and women that are enduring?' the senator asked. When Jackson claimed she had never heard the quote, Blackburn asked directly: 'Can you define the word ''woman''?' 'Can I provide a definition?' Jackson responded. 'No, I can't,' she declared, before adding: 'I'm not a biologist'.

Daily Mail

"I'm not a biologist"

I watched the exchange. As usual, she was interrupted by the questioner before she could finish answering, and the loaded question was framed that way so that it would make headlines in the right wing media that she was unable to say what a woman was. None of the Republicans badgering her were interested in even letting her answer the question properly.

It is impossible to answer a loaded question with a simple "yes" or "no". Such questions can't be answered that way without buying into the false presupposition loaded into the question. In this case, the presupposition was that she was making up an ordinary language, or dictionary definition, of the word "woman" rather than talking about legal definitions relevant to gender identification. KBJ attempted to answer the question by setting the context right, but she was cut off as if she were failing to address the question. This is typical rhetorical sandbagging technique that ideological zealots like Ted Cruz are adept at. If she gave a definition, it would be interpreted as relevant to gender identification disputes.

What little KBJ managed to get out through the repeated interruptions came to the following. She could not offer opinions about gender identification disputes, because those issues were currently before the courts. So to offer a definition of "woman" in that context prior to formulating a legal opinion was off the table. She did indicate that she was well aware of the nontechnical meaning of woman and gave examples of that. She wasn't refusing to give a definition of "woman" in that sense, but in the legal sense that would come before a court facing a gender identification dispute. However, she was never given the opportunity to construct a clear answer.

 

[TSwizzle]

Of course it's all silly theatrics but entertaining at times, like SNL.

I wonder if she likes beer.

 

[lpetrich]

Hemant Mehta then referred back to his earlier article Ketanji Brown Jackson was wrong to say 'one can only come this far by faith'

After praising KBJ, he noted "I must begin these very brief remarks by thanking God for delivering me to this point in my professional journey. My life has been blessed beyond measure, and I do know that one can only come this far by faith."

This is a woman who graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University. She graduated from Harvard’s law school. She clerked for a district judge, appellate judge, and Justice Stephen Breyer (whom she would be replacing). She worked at a high-paying corporate law firm but also served as a low-paid public defender.

It takes an extraordinary amount of hard work and tenacity to achieve any one of those goals, much less all of them. That’s all her, not God. While there’s no doubt some luck involved in getting nominated to the Supreme Court (like having a Democratic president with a Democratic Senate, in this case), Jackson’s success is the result of a lifetime of sacrifice.

That’s not to say I begrudge her mention of God, but that she’s wrong to say “one can only come this far by faith.” While she surely didn’t mean it this way, that sort of statement would imply atheists have no place on the bench.

HM is right about that. Her career success was not exactly poofed into existence.

Media outlets haven’t been able to pin a specific faith label on Jackson, but she once served on the board of a private Christian school. She was asked about the school’s anti-abortion statement of faith during her earlier confirmation hearing and said she didn’t “necessarily agree with all of the statements” and wasn’t aware of that particular part of it. But it stands to reason she had no problem with the school’s Christian affiliation because she shares that faith.

 

[southernhybrid]

This should make a certain person happy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...n-jackson-supreme-court-hearing-live-updates/

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court, said Wednesday that if confirmed, she would recuse herself from a case examining Harvard University’s admissions policies. Jackson, whose term on Harvard’s Board of Overseers expires this spring, previously had not said publicly what she would do.
Jackson’s statement came as she sat for a second round of questioning by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee after a marathon session in which she was pressed about her judicial philosophy and record as a federal judge and public defender.

Btw, I loved the "I'm not a biologist answer".

Anyone else notice how much racism was in many of the questions. They start out by quoting MLK and then they act like the puny little racists bitches that they are.

 

[lpetrich]

I tracked down that school.
Biden judicial nominee distances herself from Christian school's statement of faith - an article from a year ago

President Joe Biden's nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, on Wednesday, distanced herself from the mission statement of a Christian school whose board she once advised.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who currently serves on the D.C. District Court, during an exchange with Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, said that she did "not necessarily agree" with all of the statements of the many boards on which she has served. Her response came after Hawley asked her about the Montrose Christian School, a now-defunct Maryland high school whose board Jackson advised from 2010 to 2011.

A school with a lot of Religious-Right positions, like how Xians should speak "on behalf of the unborn" and that marriage is the "uniting of one man and one woman."

In the present hearings,

Ted Cruz Attacked Ketanji Brown Jackson for Affiliating With a Private School Like the One Where He Sends His Daughters | The New Republic - "Washington’s Georgetown Day School does indeed teach inclusion—kind of like Houston’s elite St. John’s School."

It’s axiomatic among mainstream conservatives that schoolchildren must never be taught that American society harbors prejudice against Black people. Saying so, they believe, is as bad as racial prejudice itself. (Some secretly believe it’s worse!) These conservatives support their point by noting that Martin Luther King dreamed that one day Americans “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” They would have you believe King wanted everybody to just forget about race. Which, of course, is a grotesque distortion. King was, among other things, an enthusiastic supporter of affirmative action.

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz invoked King Tuesday at the confirmation hearings of Ketanji Brown Jackson as a prelude to attacking Jackson for serving since 2019 on the board of Georgetown Day School, a private school in Washington, D.C.

 

[lpetrich]

More from that article.

The ham-handed manner in which the Senate Republicans presented their case furnished some high comedy. On Monday, Tennessee’s Senator Marsha Blackburn shamed Jackson for praising “the transformative power of progressive education,” a perfectly anodyne quote that nonetheless mangled what Jackson really said. In a GDS publication, Jackson was quoted praising “the transformative power of a rigorous [italics mine] progressive education that is dedicated to fostering critical thinking [italics mine], independence, and social justice.” The next day, Cruz repeated the quote, getting it mostly right but still juking it a little by substituting the word interdependence (more rad-lib, he perhaps thought) for independence.

Next, leading with his chin, Cruz asked Jackson what she meant by “social justice.” Jackson thanked him for asking, then landed a nice clean roundhouse punch. GDS, she explained,

was founded, in 1945, in Washington, D.C., at a time in which, by law, there was racial segregation in this community. Black students were not allowed in the public schools to go to school with white students. Georgetown Day School is a private school that was created when three white families, Jewish families, got together with three Black families and said that despite the fact that the law requires us to separate, despite the fact that the law is set up to make sure that Black children are not treated the same as everyone else, we are going to form a private school so that our children can go to school together. The idea of equality, justice, is at the core of the Georgetown Day School mission.

It was the first integrated day school in the nation's capital.

Ketanji Brown Jackson publicly expresses thanks to God but keeps faith history private

Scant details of Jackson’s past or present faith are available, most of them drawn from a few speeches in a 2,086-page document from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Others questioned by Religion News Service could not describe her current religious practice, if any.

A staffer at the Senate Judiciary Committee could not comment further on details about Jackson’s faith.

 

[lpetrich]

Back to Lindsey Graham's grilling of Ketanji Brown Jackson's faith backfired

More of LG vs. KBJ:

GRAHAM: Well, how would you feel if a senator up here said of your faith, “the dogma lives loudly within you,” and that’s of concern? How would you feel if somebody up here on our side said, “You know, you attend church too much for me,” or “Your faith is a little bit different to me,” and they would suggest that it would affect your decision? Would you find that offensive?

JACKSON: Senator…

GRAHAM: I would if I were you. I found it offensive when they said it about Judge Barrett. The reason I ask these questions is: I have no doubt that your faith is important to you. And I have zero doubt that you can adjudicate people’s cases fairly if they’re an atheist. If I had any doubt, I would… I would say so. But the only reason I mention this, judge, you’re reluctant to talk about it, ’cause it’s uncomfortable. Just imagine what would happen if people on late night television called you an f’in nut, speaking in tongues, because she practiced the Catholic faith in a way they couldn’t relate to or found uncomfortable. So, judge, you should be proud of your faith. I am convinced that whatever faith you have and how often you go to church, it will not affect your ability to be fair. And I just hope, going in the future, that we all can accept that.

Referring to Sen. Dianne Feinstein saying about Amy Coney Barrett: "The dogma lives loudly within you."

 

[Copernicus]

Of course it's all silly theatrics but entertaining at times, like SNL.

I wonder if she likes beer.

The difference, of course, is that Kavanaugh only mentioned that in a long self-serving whine about how unfairly people were treating him. He wasn't interrupted as often or as angrily during his attempts to answer. It is usual for questioners to allow some time to a nominee to give a full answer. Kavanaugh was interrupted during some of his answers when he became repetitive and nonresponsive. KBJ struggled to get a word in edgewise. When she could, she pointed out that gender identification was at the heart of the problem when trying to offer a definition of "woman", but you probably won't see that part being included in a Fox News summary. Most people will be confused by the fact that she didn't simply try to give a definition, but it would have immediately been taken as relevant to gender identification issues on matters before the courts. It made for great clickbait in the right wing blogosphere.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Heard a bit on the drive back. GOP is going full douchebag for this confirmation hearing.

 

[marc]

Heard a bit on the drive back. GOP is going full douchebag for this confirmation hearing.

And they are using ‘democrats were mean to our Supreme Court picks’ as an excuse

 

[Elixir]

All I’ve heard are campaign speeches.
Once upon a time, the candidate was the star of the show. Now it’s mostly bloviating blowhards trying to stir anger and curry favor from The Boss.

 

[lpetrich]

Hemant Mehta continued

There’s nothing in Jackson’s judicial career that even suggests her religion would interfere with her decisions. The fact that Graham and his GOP colleagues couldn’t offer up a single example gave away the game right there.

Naturally, Graham ended his line of questioning by storming out after a hissy fit, suggesting that Jackson’s clients as a defense attorney should be held against her. It was yet another sign that Graham, who had no problem voting for Jackson when she was nominated as both a district and appellate judge, was desperate to find some reason to disqualify her this time around because none of the usual attacks were working.

Lindsey Graham Melts Down and Storms Off During Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearing - "The grandstanding moment came at the tail-end of Graham’s grievance-filled questioning of the SCOTUS pick."

Noting
David Weigel on Twitter: "Whatever you think of Hawley's and Cotton's strategies for grilling Brown Jackson, they're more compelling than Graham's festivus of judicial nominations grievances." / Twitter
He continued with some court-appointment drama llama during George Bush II's Presidency.

Back to TDB.

Graham, who has already voted twice to confirm Jackson to the federal bench, devoted much of his Q&A session on Tuesday to both airing a host of conservative grievances and seemingly finding any reason to justify not voting to place Jackson on the Supreme Court.
Advertisement

Apparently, Jackson’s previous work representing detainees at Guantánamo Bay as a public defender was just the opening Graham—an extreme war hawk—needed.

LG then grilled KBJ about a deposition that she filed on behalf of her GB clients that implied that the Bush II Admin was "acting as war criminals".

Dick Durbin, D-IL, head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, offered additional context.

“On the issue of Guantanamo, 39 detainees remain. It’s $450 million per year. Each of these detainees is being held at the expense of $12 or $13 million per year. If they would be incarcerated in Florence, Colorado, the supermax federal prison, the amount would be dramatically less. Since 2009, with the beginning of the Obama Administration, the repeat rate of Guantanamo detainees is five percent.”

Then they argued about whether the released ones are likely to become terrorists again. LG shouted

“What does it matter what it goes back to?! We had them, they got loose and they started killing people. If you are one of the people killed in 2005 does it matter to you when we released them?!”

We're at war, we're not fighting crime! This is not some passage of time event. As long as they're dangerous, I hope they all die in jail if they're going to go back to kill Americans. It won't bother me one bit if 39 of them die in prison. That's a better outcome than letting them go and if it cost $500 million to keep them in jail, keep them in jail because they'll go back to the fight. Look at the freaking Afghan government made up of former detainees at Gitmo. This whole thing by the left about this war ain't working!

End LG quote.

And with that, Graham rose from his chair, grabbed his drink, and stormed out of the chambers. Jackson, meanwhile, remained quiet during the awkward exchange and merely waited for the next set of questions.

Naturally, the media-addicted Graham quickly ran right to reporters to talk about his performance and how it’s “fair to say” he now sees red flags when it comes to Jackson’s nomination.

 

[ZiprHead]

Lindsey Graham Melts Down and Storms Off During Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearing - "The grandstanding moment came at the tail-end of Graham’s grievance-filled questioning of the SCOTUS pick."

Reminded me of Corky from Waiting For Guffman. "I just hate you and I hate your ass face!!!"

 

[Metaphor]

Btw, I loved the "I'm not a biologist answer".

It doesn't take a biologist to understand what a woman is, any more than I need to have a PhD in Pure Mathematics to say 2 + 2 = 4.