Gerald Sastra/The Cougar
Since Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court and her confirmation hearing, many conservatives have questioned President Joe Biden in appointing her.
After several days of questioning, it has become quite clear that the intense scrutiny she went through was due to political agendas implicitly expressed by Republican figures.
Controversial conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson continued to question the merits of Judge Jackson’s career. He’s gone on national television asking for Judge Jackson’s LSAT scores, which are always undisclosed outside of law school applications.
Carlson mentioned asking for a Judge’s LSAT score would be considered racist in the eyes of his critics, just because Judge Jackson is a Black woman. But his statement is indeed seen as racist.
Carlson hasn’t questioned the credentials of other white, Republican judicial nominees such as Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. He even defended Obama-era appointee Merrick Garland, despite him being appointed by a Democrat.
But, in the case of Judge Jackson, graduating from Harvard University and Harvard Law, serving several years as a public defender and many more years in federal courts are, apparently, not enough to convince Carlson and many of his viewers that she is qualified to be considered for the Supreme Court.
Other Republican senators such as Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and Lindsey Graham all deviated from productive lines of questioning. They instead advanced their own political agendas to try and trap Judge Jackson into discussing the ethics behind one of her rulings regarding a case of child pornography back in 2013.
This specific case is making many Republicans believe that her sentencing against the defendant was “soft,” and Democrats are gatekeeping information from Republicans regarding the case.
Judge Jackson’s ability to put aside her feelings regarding this crime and consider the merit behind the two arguments during the trial only exemplifies her as an unbiased Judge that follows the guidelines created by the legislative.
Despite the attacks on her from the right, one thing that has been made clear throughout the hearing is Judge Jackson has been strenuously questioned on her merit when it has been nothing short of admirable.
Conservatives have likely been attacking her in order to keep a progressive judge from taking the bench. Senators tried to advance conservative political agendas in a hearing that should be bipartisan.
JJ Caceres is a political science freshman who can be reached at [email protected]
