Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson marked her historic confirmation in the US Supreme Court with a moving speech from the White House on Friday, where she celebrated the “hope and promise” of a nation where it was possible that her family move from segregation to a Supreme Court appointment in a generation.
“It took 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a black woman to be selected to serve on the United States Supreme Court. But we did. We did it. All of us,” Jackson said as he stood next to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Jackson continued: “And our kids are telling me that they see now more than ever, that here in America anything is possible. They also tell me that I am a role model, that I consider it an opportunity and a huge responsibility.”
“I’m feeling up to the task, mainly because I know I’m not alone,” Jackson said. “I’m standing on the shoulders of my own role models, generations of Americans who never had anything close to this kind of opportunity, but who got up every day and went to work believing in America’s promise. Showing others through her determination and, yes, her perseverance that good and good things can be done in this great country.”
The judge quoted poet Maya Angelou and said: “I do this now as I bring the gifts my ancestors gave. I am the slave’s dream and hope.”
Jackson said his confirmation in the country’s highest court was something “all Americans can be proud of” and said the US “has come a long way to perfect our unity.”
Biden celebrated Jackson’s confirmation and said, “This is going to let so much… sun shine on so many young women, so many black women, so many minorities. This is real”.
He continued: “Nothing to do with me – let’s look back and see this as a real turning point in American history.”
The president said, “It’s a powerful thing when people can see themselves in others,” and added that the belief was “one of the reasons I believe so strongly that we needed a courtroom that looked like America.”
Biden said Jackson suffered “verbal abuse” during her Senate confirmation hearings and praised her for her “composure” in the face of Republican attacks.
“The anger, the constant interruptions, the baser and baser claims and accusations. In the face of it all, Judge Jackson showed the incredible character and integrity she possesses. Balance. Balance and composure. Patience and restraint. And yes, perseverance, and even joy,” Biden said.
Biden thanked the three Republicans who voted with the Democrats in favor of confirming Jackon — Senator Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The vote count was 53 to 47 in the Senate.
“They deserve enormous credit for setting aside partisanship and making a carefully considered judgment based on the judge’s character, qualifications and independence,” Biden said, naming the three senators.
The vice president said that while presiding over the Senate confirmation vote on Thursday, she drafted a note for her goddaughter.
“I told her that I felt such a deep sense of pride and joy, and about what this moment means for our nation and for its future,” Harris said. “And I’ll tell you, her braids are a little longer than hers, but as I wrote to her, I told her what I knew it would mean to her life and all that she has potential. ”
Harris said: “The path to our most perfect union is not always straight and not always smooth. But sometimes it leads to a day like today. A day that reminds us of what is possible, what is possible when progress is made. And that the journey, well, will always be worth it.”
The Senate on Thursday made Judge Jackson officiate in a vote that paves the way for her to become the first black woman to serve in the country’s highest court. Jackson’s confirmation is a significant bipartisan victory for Democrats, which comes at a time when the US faces a number of internal and external challenges, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sky-high inflation.
Covid-19 pandemic
One of those challenges – the Covid-19 pandemic – loomed over the commemorative event.
Kamala Harris was a close contact after her communications director tested positive for Covid-19 this week. A White House official said the vice president would not wear a mask at the outdoor event and would instead remain “distant” from others.
Current recommendations from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specify that an individual considered to be in close contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 must wear a mask around other people for 10 days after the date of last contact. The guidelines do not say that this person can go without a mask around others if they are practicing social distancing.
The event comes days after two members of Biden’s cabinet – Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo – announced they had tested positive for Covid-19. Several top Washington figures, including lawmakers and other White House and administration officials, also tested positive after attending Gridiron’s annual dinner.
The dinner brings together some of the city’s most prominent journalists, including CNN, and government officials who cover it. Participants had their vaccination status verified, but negative Covid-19 tests were not required to enter.
In September 2020, a White House event where President Donald Trump announced his choice to nominate then-Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court ended up being labeled by public health experts as a coronavirus super spread event.
At least a dozen people who were at the Rose Garden event – including Trump – confirmed that they had contracted Covid-19 shortly after their attendance. Vaccines for Covid-19 were not yet available and would be authorized months later.
At the time, the packed ceremony, where public health guidelines were flouted and many were left without a mask and social distancing went unnoticed, underscored the Trump White House’s mismanagement of the Covid-19 crisis. Trump had hinted in conversations with advisers that masked and socially distanced events would project weakness against the pandemic and could contradict his claims that the outbreak was “just around the corner.”
White House communications director Kate Bedingfield told John Berman of the CNNthat the country is in a “very different place” in the pandemic than when Trump hosted the White House event for Barrett.
“We have certainly seen an increase in cases. We know that the BA.2 variant is very transmissible. We are taking many, many precautions. We take precautions to ensure the president is protected,” Bedingfield said on the “New Day” of the CNN.
The president on Wednesday interacted with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has since tested positive for Covid-19. The two were spotted side by side at an account signing event. The White House said Biden was not considered a close contact of Pelosi. The White House also said the president tested negative Friday morning as part of regularly scheduled tests and that Biden will continue to be tested regularly.
Jackson will be officially sworn in to the Supreme Court after Justice Stephen Breyer retires — by September of this year. Until then, she will remain in her current position on the US Court of Appeals, a White House official told CNN.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
