03/23/2022
Lynn Murphy Mark
It is the month of March, dedicated to Women’s History. This week there is an historic process taking place: the nomination hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. The meetings are intended to evaluate her as a candidate for a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States. I have spent a couple of hours each day watching her as she sits in the middle of a ring of politicians, some friendly and some definitely not.
Yesterday and today, Senators Hawley, Cotton, Lee, Cruz and Graham appointed themselves as a firing squad. I had trouble absorbing the extent of their rudeness as they threw out a series of inane questions. They were clearly trying to ruffle her in hopes that she might make a sound bite statement they could later use against her. Their goal appeared to be to paint her as a puppet of the liberal left, someone soft on crime, not to be trusted to be impartial.
They tried to portray her as someone who took it easy on child pornography perpetrators. They kept hammering her with questions about her sentencing “leniency” when it comes to this type of case. Apparently this is a small subset of cases that she has litigated but they sought to make it her centerpiece. Time after time the Senators threw mud in her direction while she attempted to answer their queries even as they interrupted by talking over her.
The Democratic Senators took their turns and fell all over themselves to be friendly, open, and supportive. Instead of asking questions about jurisprudence they had glowing words about her capabilities and qualifications, and tried to debunk the negative statements made by their colleagues on the right. At least that’s what it looked like to me.
As I watched her body language I marveled at how she maintained an appearance of calm professionalism. There were a couple of times when her expression tightened and she took a deep breath. She got a little bit of that look that my children used to call the, “Oh-oh she’s mad now!” look. The stakes are too high for her to behave otherwise, but I would have cheered her on if she had sliced and diced them as the rude boys they are. I am certain that she has it in her.
Instead, she took the high road. As Michelle Obama once said, “When they go low, we go high.” and that is exactly what Judge Jackson did. There were no tears, or any defense of beer drinking, or any of the whining that boys will be boys that happened during a previous confirmation hearing. She answered each question directly, politely, and to the extent that she was allowed to do so.
It occurred to me that if a group of alien invaders was exploring planetary options and witnessed the behavior in that confirmation room, they would have reported back to their space ship and said, “Let’s get the hell out of here!”, and gone in search of a different planet. I’ve got a few guys in mind that they can take with them…
1 thought on “Grace and decorum”
This was an excellent analysis of the hearings so far. Quite accurate, including who should go with the space ship to another planet.
While the Senators treating her so badly know their white male/male privilege/gender socialization protects them from any recriminations for their treatment of anyone/women/African Americans/minorities/we the people, they are also being self-righteous about Judge Jackson having been a Defense Attorney.
For anyone of the same mindset about Defense Attorneys, when I was in college, I wanted to be a DA and put all the bad people in jail where they belonged. So I applied for Law School. To be a DA. Period. Then I found out that at the Law School I had applied for, every graduating Law Student had to be in a pool of “pro bono public defenders” for their entire careers in that state. If there were not enough public defenders in their area, their name could be pulled out of a hat and they would have to be a “public defender” for their assigned client. I literally withdrew from the application process at that point because I told the Law School I was not going to ever defend some murderer, pedophile, rapist, wife beater, etc.
My girlfriend at the time proceeded through the process and went to Law School. She, too, wanted to be a DA. The first thing all the Law Students were taught when they took their first Criminal Law class was that if a defendant, no matter how guilty they appeared, did not have legal representation (a defense attorney who was capable), the law (The US Constitution) said that they had to be freed…for it was better to free 100 guilty people than to wrongfully incarcerate 1 innocent person.
While I may not appreciate the vigorous (creative?) defense some Defense Attorney uses to give their client (the defendant) the best defense that they can, I appreciate their willingness and expertise that is required of a Defense Attorney so they can provide their client with the defense that our Constitution ensures that they get. Otherwise, they will be set free.
As I matured and watched many “miscarriages of justice” occur (including 2 death penalty cases where 1 innocent person was put to death and the other innocent person still sits on death row), especially when related to women & minorities, my perspective has broadened and become more balanced. I have come to see how just it is for attorneys to be on the side of the Defendant for everyone charged with crimes by the Government…because even with good counsel, each prison has truly innocent prisoners within their walls…and each of these cases should frighten us all.
I am glad that the US Supreme Court will finally have the first Defense Attorney (only part of her career) and African American Woman on the Court representing all of us. For the People and By the People!
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