The historic significance of the confirmation vote for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

No matter the final tally, today’s vote by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will be historic. The senators are set to vote on whether to recommend Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first African-American woman nominated to the Supreme Court, to the full Senate for confirmation.

Most of the Republican committee members, who took part in the March hearings, plan to be on the wrong side of history. Even Republican Sen. Ben Sasse — who described some of his GOP colleagues’ antics as “jackassery" — has said he won’t support her. The Nebraska Republican acknowledged Judge Brown Jackson as “an extraordinary person” but added, “We both love this country, but we disagree on judicial philosophy.” Sadly, most of his colleagues on the committee will also vote no. Sen. Lindsay Graham already announced he would vote no, even though he supported her two previous confirmations. First, in 2013 as a district court judge for the District of Columbia and again in 2021 for the U.S. Court of Appeals D.C. Circuit, where she is now seated.

The prospect of Judge Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the nation’s highest court was apparently too much for the nasty and rude gang of questioners in the March hearings who boldly cherry-picked her sentencing in child pornography cases and continued to take her words out of context even when she corrected them. In one case, Judge Brown Jackson twice asked that senators “go down two sentences” to see what she’d actually ruled.

She was patient and poised absorbing the yelling and finger-pointing — not questions about her judicial experience so much as statements about culture war issues. Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn insisted that she define “woman.” And in a red-faced fit of pomposity, Sen. Ted Cruz, who first met the judge when they were both Harvard Law School students, demanded to know if she thought babies were “racist.” He challenged the curriculum at the private school where she is a board member for teaching Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s book, “Antiracist Baby.” That would be the same book that is part of the curriculum at the school his children attend. The Texas senator continued his rabid rant past his allotted time. A photograph appears to document him grandstanding right before concentrating on checking Twitter.

Every African American woman watching the hearings knew exactly what Judge Brown Jackson she was feeling. I kept thinking about those Black church elders who often reminded me, ‘There’s no testimony without a test.’ As a Black woman, she’s had a lifetime of testing, having to navigate racist assumptions about her intelligence and abilities.

I sobbed when Sen. Cory Booker used his time to call out the race and gender attacks and to recognize her stellar accomplishments, saying “God has got you. And how do I know that? Because you’re here. And I know what it’s taken for you to sit in that seat.”

As it happens, an accident of history adds to the weight of today’s vote. On April 4, 54 years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Judge Brown Jackson is one of the children of the dreamers who fought racial segregation, imagining a future where she could ascend to the Supreme Court.

She’ll have at least one Republican vote for confirmation in the full Senate: Maine’s Susan Collins pledged her support.

It’s possible that by week’s end, Judge Brown Jackson will be the third Black justice and the sixth woman ever to serve on the high court, testimony in hand.