Thirty years after the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court, we have another person of color nominated to the high court: the eminently qualified Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The Republican senators on the committee are distorting her record, her education and her rulings for no reason other than their own political ambitions in the next election. When will this stop and when can we can get back to elected officials who want to do what is best for the citizens of the United States instead of the big money that funds them?
We need a universal primary date for the country within three months of the general election so elected officials are not spending two years campaigning. We need reform of campaign finance so our politicians are not being bought and sold by the highest donor. And we need to get rid of the fantasy that corporations are people — the Founding Fathers could not have meant to include them as such.
This country could be the country the Founders imagined if we had not allowed our elected officials to make elected public service so lucrative for themselves that they are willing to sell their souls to the devil to retain it.
— Judy Cape, Harrisburg
Religious questions improper
During confirmation hearings, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham questioned Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson about her religious faith, such as how often she goes to church. He referred back to the criticism of Justice Amy Coney Barrett over her Catholicism.
While I disagree with Coney Barrett on almost everything, it should be pointed out regarding both cases that the U.S. Constitution states in Article VI: “No religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
Any such question by any senator is therefore totally improper and should never be asked.
— Lou Becker, Skokie
Jackson soft on crime?
The GOP questioned Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson about her ability to be on the nation’s highest court because she was a public defender. She was appointed defendants by the court and provided a defense to ensure the prosecution followed the law. The GOP wants us to believe she is soft on crime.
Illinois GOP gubernatorial candidate Richard Irvin chose to be a defense attorney and selected his clients. His law firm defended a man accused of attacking police and a man, Gary Martin, who later committed the worst mass shooting in Aurora’s history. Irvin wants us to believe he is the “law and order” candidate.
Jackson: Soft on crime? Irvin: Hypocritical?
— Robert Lange, Chicago
Focusing on race, sex
I wish that Ketanji Brown Jackson would be identified as a qualified person with many years of judicial experience instead of as the “first Black female Supreme Court nominee.” Her qualifications are the many legal decisions made during her years in the courts. The fact that she is Black and a woman is incidental.
— Mary Ann Kehl, Wilmette
Character assassination
Watching Republican senators attack Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearings makes me wonder how anyone can still call themselves a Republican these days. Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz tried to slime her as being soft on pornographers. Sen. Lindsey Graham tried to paint her as being a tool for the radical left. What they are doing is nothing short of harassment and character assassination.
Is there a Republican out there who will defend this behavior? Please don’t bring up the Brett Kavanaugh hearings as a counterargument. Kavanaugh was credibly accused of sexual assault. Contrast his loutish behavior during his confirmation hearings with Jackson’s composure.
The hypocrisy and cynicism of Republicans attacking Jackson as being soft on pornographers, when they have a reputation for supporting men accused of sexual misconduct like Donald Trump and Matt Gaetz, are sickening.
— Richard G. Keslinke, Algonquin
Quite a performance
How unfortunate for Sen. Lindsey Graham that the votes are already counted for best actor in a supporting role for this year’s Oscars.
His disingenuous tirade at the confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson was by far the most dramatic performance in the past 12 months.
— Bob Ory, Elgin
A study in contrasts
As I watched Republican senators grilling Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson about particulars of cases over which she presided and some notorious people she had defended, it reminded me that no senator did this to Hugo Black in 1937 during his confirmation hearing. None questioned his successful defense of a Methodist minister who was accused of murdering a Roman Catholic priest after the minister’s daughter converted to Catholicism and the priest presided over her wedding.
Nor did the revelation that Black was a onetime member of the Ku Klux Klan cause anyone to demand that he step down after he joined the Supreme Court.
— Paul L. Newman, Merion Station, Pennsylvania
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