Madison Kwiecinski 

News Editor 

Mvk5945@psu.edu 

Hopefully soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has had to undergo outrageous and irrelevant questions throughout her Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Upon appointment, Judge Jackon will be the first Black female Supreme Court Justice. 

Jackson’s confirmation hearings have been controversial, to say the very least. A certain amount of questioning is inherently important, as Justices to our nation’s highest court should be evaluated under a high level of scrutiny. However, her questioning has bordered on completely irrelevant, a clear sign of partisan politics rather than an examination of her qualifications. 

Jackson has been asked to define a woman, to state if she thinks babies are racist, and to elaborate on her religious preferences. These questions she has been asked by Republican Senators are not questions asked out of good intent, or even asked out of a desire to hear her opinion, they are questions designed to act as nothing but a trap. Religion should have no basis on who is appointed to the Supreme Court, as our government has no established religion and her job is a matter of law not faith. 

Judge Jackson, unlike many other Supreme Court Justices, had the opportunity to spend time as a public defender early in her career. Republicans have questioned Jackson’s work defending Guantanamo Bay detainees, and her briefs written on the subject of indefinite detention of detainees being unlawful. 

“Federal public defenders don’t get to pick their clients,” said Judge Jackson. “It’s a service. That’s what you do as a federal public defender. You are standing up for the constitutional value of representation.” 

The above mentioned quote represents the entire issue with Jackson’s confirmation hearings. She should not have to explain that what she was doing was right regardless of their morals because it was her constitutional obligation, the elected officials questioning her should know that. More so, they should be asking her questions regarding her ability to uphold the constitutional obligation of being a Supreme Court Justice, asking her questions that fall within the law or realm of constitutionality. 

Senator Ted Cruz asked Judge Jackson about the New York Times’ “1619 Project” before diving into an extended session of questioning regarding critical race theory and books that are taught to children in grade K-12. You could almost say here that Cruz was asking Jackson about how to do his own job, not if she is qualified to do hers here. 

Senator Cruz then went on to read several passages out of several different children’s books, clearly a productive use of our elected state Representatives time, as well as Judge Jacksons’. Cruz essentially finished his questioning by asking Judge Jackson if she believed babies are inherently racist, which in case you were wondering, she does not. Cruz claimed these questions were legitimate due to Judge Jackson previously serving on the Board of Trustees for the Georgetown Day School in Washington DC. although Jackson stated her role there had nothing to do with the curriculum and she was perplexed by where the line of questioning stemmed from. 

Judge Jackson has repeatedly reiterated throughout these hearings that she is here to answer questions regarding her role as a Judge. In response to Ted Cruz reading children’s books at her, she stated, “I have not reviewed any of those books. They don’t come up in my work as a Judge, which I’m, respectfully, here to address.” 

These hearings would be a much more productive use of everyone’s time if they stuck to questions regarding actual qualifications for the work Supreme Court Justices do. It is a tremendous waste of everyone’s time to have Senators questioning a Supreme Court nominee about racist babies, or attempting to force them into trick questions rather than actually evaluating their qualifications. This is the highest court in our nation, and it would be great if we could treat the position with the respect it actually deserves.