Alan Leach: Fair game to criticize judicial nominee respectfully, not on political party

To The Daily Sun,

Charles Bradley‘s vitriolic and insulting letter on April 7 concerning Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson demands a response. Mr. Bradley states that Joe Biden’s announcement that he would choose a Black woman to succeed Justice Stephen Breyer was "in violation of our civil rights law." Although I am not a lawyer, as Mr. Bradley is, I doubt Biden’s announcement is any more of a violation of law than presidential candidate Ronald Reagan’s statement on Oct. 15, 1980, that he would name “a woman to one of the first Supreme Court vacancies in my administration.” As president, Reagan nominated Sandra Day O’Conner, who became the first female justice. As a presidential candidate, Biden said he would appoint a Black woman to SCOTUS, did so as president, and KBJ will become the first Black female Justice. What’s the difference?

Mr. Bradley’s insults are galling. He refers to KBJ as “Harvard-brainwashed” perhaps forgetting that three of the 11 Republicans members on the Judiciary Committee holding KBJ’s confirmation hearings are Harvard graduates. Sen. Ben Sasse has a Harvard degree; Sens. Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton are Harvard Law graduates. KBJ is more liberal than other recent SCOTUS appointees. But no one who has listened to her speeches or read her judicial opinions would call her a “leftist looney tune.” By all accounts she is brilliant, thoughtful, humble, respectful, and inspirational. At the end of his letter, Mr. Bradley states that an appointment to SCOTUS would allow KBJ to spout her “hatred of America.” Really? Throughout her confirmation hearings, KBJ noted that she considers the United States to be a great nation, a land of incredible opportunity, and a country that went from segregation to having a Black woman on SCOTUS in a single generation. Following her confirmation, KBJ said, “I have dedicated my career to public service because I love this country and our Constitution and the rights that make us free.” Hardly the expressions of someone who hates America.

Mr. Bradley’s characterization of KBJ’s speech at the University of Michigan Law School is baffling and troublesome. He states KBJ “advised students to hide their real thinking to ‘get ahead’ and then pounce when they reach the top (in her case SCOTUS).” The implication is that KBJ has hidden her true legal philosophy and principles and won’t reveal them until she’s on SCOTUS. The transcript of the speech is on the Judiciary Committee’s website. Not a single sentence in that speech has anything whatsoever to do with advising students to conceal their thinking. It was a speech given to celebrate the role Black women had in the Civil Rights Movement.

It is fair game to criticize any judicial nominee’s suitability to serve if done thoughtfully, respectfully, honestly, and without insults and name-calling. But if the only real reason for rejecting a nominee is the political party of the president making the nomination, then remember what Mitch McConnell said to those criticizing Donald Trump’s nomination of Justice Amy Coney Barrett: “Elections have consequences.”

Alan Leach

Northfield