While watching the historic confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson (KBJ), it occurs to me that....
***Today's breaking news that the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on KBJ's nomination on April 4 is historically significant as it will come on the 54th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's assassination in Memphis, Tennessee.
I imagine that had Dr. King lived that he would be among KBJ's staunchest supporters despite Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's foolish insinuation that KBJ's ideology runs counter to Dr. King's "dream" about racial equality.
KBJ smiles as part of her family looks on in admiration during her arduous confirmation Senate hearings…
Check out more about what Morehouse Man King really felt below...
***I've been actively watching confirmation hearings since I was 15-years-old, back when Robert Bork's proceedings got nasty and contentious based upon his racist past and resulted in the Reagan nominee being dissed by Republicans and Democrats, alike, in 1987.
But what I didn't learn until yesterday, only weeks before my 50th Birthday, is that Senate Confirmation hearings were not an initial requirement per the U.S. Constitution. I now know (and share) that from 1787 until 1916, no Supreme Court nominee appeared before the Senate Judicial Committee until then President Woodrow Wilson nominated Louis Brandeis to replace retiring Justice Joseph Lamar.
Justice Louis Brandeis
Brandeis, who was Jewish, was subjected to a proceeding filled with anti-Semitic rhetoric, but he was confirmed by a 47-22 vote and became the first Jew to serve on the Supreme Court!
Lest we forget…
***KBJ's hearings have surely had some tense moments, particularly with regards to rude Republican senators who continuously cut her off while she is answering their mostly asinine questions.
Yesterday, I made the following post on Facebook about my disdain for the worst offender, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, with the following Hobbservations:
1. Sen. Lindsey Graham is a former trial lawyer who prosecuted and defended criminal cases. Meaning, he knows fully well how cases are filed, defended, and adjudicated by the courts. Meaning, he was pandering to the Great Unwashed who are looking for any reason at all to smear Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and in this instance, falsely insinuating that she is soft on those accused of child sex/porn crimes.
2. Sen. Lindsey Graham, not very long ago, voted to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Federal appellate bench. Meaning, what has happened in the time since he voted "yay" to today, when he has acted like a complete bully in front of a worldwide audience?
3. The answer to prong two (2) is "politics," as in, it is politically expedient for Sen. Graham, potential 2024 presidential aspirant, to have a hissy fit about Judge Brown Jackson being a progressive activist when, in truth, there's little evidence to support that charge.
Once more, Graham is a trial lawyer who knows what sentencing guidelines are, how they are formed, and how they are used in an advisory capacity by judges across America—but his questions feign ignorance for his comfortably ignorant followers.
4. Graham, as a trial lawyer, would never take such a nasty, condescending tone in court proceedings with a witness, opposing counsel, or judge because he could be held in contempt and tossed in jail. That he has chosen to play the fool the last two days is further proof that civility is a mere word to him...
5. Lindsey Graham, as a senator, supported Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, a man accused of several sexual assaults. As senator, Graham has supported and called former President Donald Trump his friend; Trump, too, has been accused of multiple sexual assaults, was a friend of charged child molester Jeffrey Epstein, and boldly said on the Howard Stern show that his daughter Ivanka "was hot" and that he "would date her if she wasn't his daughter." Trump later added, on audiotape no less after interviewing with Billy Bush of Access Hollywood, that "because he is a star," that women "let him kiss them” and "grab them by the 🐱." The same holds true for Graham's oft cordial relationship with former President Bill Clinton, a man whose very impeachment centered around perjury involving sex with then 24-year-old Monica Lewinsky, which was taken during depositions in a lawsuit that focused on, you probably guessed it, prior sexual harassment and assault!
Yet today, Lindsey Graham wants folks to believe that Judge Brown Jackson is the one that turns a blind eye towards sexual molestation and assault?
Deplorable!
***I also think that the focus of Republican senators on a handful of child porn possession cases that KBJ has adjudicated is quite curious in that:
1. Out of all of the legal questions that they could ask KBJ, a woman who has vast legal and judicial experience in various areas, that they are focusing on crime and punishment is a "y'all know that she is soft on crime" dog whistle to their racially homogenous base that assumes that "she" is letting "them" (Black folks) off easy...
2. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission's 2021 statistics, eight (8) out of ten (10) defendants that are convicted of possessing child porn are WHITE MALES. Which leads me to wonder when have Senators Cruz, Graham, Hawley, or any of their fellow Republicans jumped up and down and pounded on their Senate tables to address the white men that are committing over 80% of child porn possession crimes?
Again, eight out of ten child porn possesors in America are white males…
Methinks, never...
***Yes, the part of me that believes in protecting the Sistas has had a tough time watching a group of loud, ignorant, and soft as Charmin white men yell and scream at KBJ this week; my very protective part has imagined, more than once, that had KBJ been my family member, I would have stepped to these "men" in the Senate hallways on break to find out if they wanted to yell at a real man.
But as KBJ's silent tears fell yesterday, I gave full honor and respect to Brotha Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) for eloquently stating what millions of Black folks have been feeling as we have watched a fellow descendant of the enslaved being disrespected by the descendants of slave overseers who have been "cracking" their rhetorical whips all week. Bro. Booker said: “You’re so much more than your race and gender. You have earned this spot, you are worthy. You are a great American."
Amen, Amen, and Amen again….
***Conservatives just LOVE to quote Dr. Martin Luther King when, in their sophistry, they confuse his "I Have a Dream Speech" and his text about "the content of one's character" with their inaccurate interpretation that King wanted to ignore three centuries of racial wrongs committed by racist whites upon Black folks.
Alas, to quote my dearly departed father, Charles,"that's some bullshit!"
What I find funny is how these conservatives always seem to overlook a statement Dr. King made not long before racists killed him, when he said during a 1967 meeting with his aides and his close friend, Harry Belafonte:
"I’ve come upon something that disturbs me deeply. We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should have, and I know we will win, but I have come to believe that we are integrating into a burning house. I’m afraid that America has lost the moral vision she may have had, and I’m afraid that even as we integrate, we are walking into a place that does not understand that this nation needs to be deeply concerned with the plight of the poor and disenfranchised. Until we commit ourselves to ensuring that the underclass is given justice and opportunity, we will continue to perpetuate the anger and violence that tears the soul of this nation. I fear I am integrating my people into a burning house.”
Yeah, so I suppose that the above King quote doesn't fit the daily BS narrative from Mr. Hawley, Mr. Cruz, “Missy” Graham, and Mr. Kennedy about the true color of justice...
***Last point: The aforementioned Republican senators, all of whom are in the high or low end of my generation, are proof that not only do they lack the civility to treat a Supreme Court nominee with the respect that she deserves, but that most are not nearly as bright or as logical as their college degrees and professional resumes would suggest.
As I have always said, contrary to popular belief, the oldest form of affirmative action is the "Good Ol' Boy" network, and nearly 50 years of living have shown me that while there are many brilliant, talented, and good natured whites in America that treat everyone with respect, that there are a whole bunch of jackasses who were born on third base—but act like they stood in the batter's box and hit a triple. Now, I dare not say such is the majority, as I count a number of whites as my true friends on this life's journey. But I call them out, too, in hopes that more of my white friends and followers who are good and decent will choose to call out their racial kinsmen who are not good or decent, otherwise, it leaves Black folks perpetually chasing windmills on a quixotic quest to make equal justice under the law more than a lofty turn of phrase!
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a great Thursday!
They treated a sitting federal court judge - one who sits on a court that is considered as near esteemed as the SCOTUS itself - one from which 4 or or 5 other justices came - as though she merited no dignity, decency or deference that they need respect. It was Roger Taney 2.0, notwithstanding Brown v. Board of Education, and by extension, Thurgood, King, Obama, and Harris. It is perhaps because of them and the clear potential of more of them in the not so distant future, that we are witnessing an apparent existential crisis manifesting in the increasingly amorphous halls of power.
… this is good stuff Chuck! Thanks for sharing the knowledge.
They treated a sitting federal court judge - one who sits on a court that is considered as near esteemed as the SCOTUS itself - one from which 4 or or 5 other justices came - as though she merited no dignity, decency or deference that they need respect. It was Roger Taney 2.0, notwithstanding Brown v. Board of Education, and by extension, Thurgood, King, Obama, and Harris. It is perhaps because of them and the clear potential of more of them in the not so distant future, that we are witnessing an apparent existential crisis manifesting in the increasingly amorphous halls of power.