In a Bloomberg Law Insight, Professor Bennett Capers shares his expert opinion on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination and what her experiences and perspectives as a Black female judge will mean for future decisions on the Court.
In a way, we’re used to seeing Black women judges. Or at least Black women playing judges on TV and in movies. Think Judge Hatchett. Or the Black woman judge in “Legally Blonde.” Or “Primal Fear.” Or “The Next Big Thing.” There is even a Reddit thread on the number of Black women judges on the screen.
But in reality, to be a judge who is Black and female is a rarity, so much so that many conservatives decried President Biden’s promise to name a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court as affirmative action.
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What vision will Jackson bring to the court, assuming she is confirmed and becomes as associate justice? I don’t know.
But I do hope she’ll bring all of herself, including her life experience, to her judging. And that’s a life experience where race matters, and gender matters.
For her to simply be a Black woman judge is window dressing, on par with hiring a Black actress to play a judge. But to have her take the bench and judge as a Black woman—as someone who knows personally that America is still becoming what it must be, a place where we all belong—that’s what I’m hoping for and looking forward to. That’s what I’m here for.
