Ken Kemnagum Okorie, an attorney, is a member of the editorial board of USAfrica (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com
On March 21, 2022, the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate began the four-day hearing for the confirmation of the historic nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to the United States Supreme Court. Rather than join to relish the history Judge Jackson represents, some Republican extremists have since decided to dig for rubbish that does not exist. Notwithstanding, Judge Jackson is rooted in foundation not even the Republican quicksand can shift. If approved (and the indicators suggest that Democrats can confirm her without Republican support), she will actually become the first Black female to sit on the nation’s highest court in its 223-years since it was established in March 1789.
To berate Judge Thomas for her representation of persons who were charged in American courts amounts to either intentional mischief or the absence and/or lack of understanding of the essence of US jurisprudence. Indeed both might actually be the case.
Two features stand out among the attributes that stand American justice out and front among comparable systems. One is that it is better that several guilty persons go free than convict a single innocent individual. The other is that every person must have equal access to justice. Even the most heinous of criminals is entitled to effective assistance of counsel. That is the law of the United States. It is the difference between America as a country that values freedom and human rights and the dictatorships the United States ceaselessly oppose.
Some Trump Republicans have since started their distraction tactics with suggestions that Judge Jackson is going to be “soft on crime.” Others have hounded her for serving as a public defender representing some of the terrorists held by the U.S at Guantanamo Bay — after the attacks that brought down the World Trade Center and damaged parts of the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Therefore, criticizing a lawyer for defending incarcerated accused persons, even as such accused are terrorists related to the 9-11, is cruel disavowal of the values for which American stands and the tenets of its constitution. It is silly politics that borders on the unpatriotic.
President Biden nominated Judge Jackson to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, for whom she clerked at the US Supreme Court, twenty years ago.
Judge Jackson was thrice previously confirmed by the Judiciary Committee, first as trial judge in the US District Court for Washington, DC. (2013-2021), next as assistant special counsel to the United States Sentencing Commission, a bipartisan, independent agency created by Congress in the judicial branch to reduce sentencing disparities, and promote
transparency and proportionality, in sentencing (2003-2005). She was subsequently confirmed to the DC Circuit, the central circuit of legal proceedings that involve the US government (2021).
Judge Jackson’s accomplishments in her assignments leave no doubt as to her qualification or skill as a legal scholar and jurist. Her stellar academics speak loudly for her. She was editor on the Harvard Law Review, from where she graduated with honors. Yet, true to form, Republican extremists insist on digging for fish in a pond that holds no water.
Noting seems to deter Republican extremist on Capitol Hill. Their attacks on Judge Jackson is a classic epitome of the Igbo saying of the man admiring and desiring a beautiful girl, but finding neither fault nor access, simply says to her ‘You are too beautiful for my liking.’
But here are few eyelid-shifting ironies. The very Republicans bashing Judge Jackson would not even given President Obama a chance to nominate candidates to fill vacancies on the nation’s highest court — nearly a year before the end of his term. But they were quick to rush through Trump’s nominees that came within his last quarter as President. Yet Republicans are quick to complain about divisions and absence of cooperation in Washington.
Judge Jackson’s accomplishments in her assignments leave no doubt as to her qualification or skill as a legal scholar and jurist. Her stellar academics speak loudly for her. She was editor on the Harvard Law Review, from where she graduated with honors. Yet, true to form, Republican extremists insist on digging for fish in a pond that holds no water. She should be confirmed!
