Supreme Court nominee Jackson is qualified, South Florida Black women attorneys say
Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is highly qualified for the job, a group of Black women attorneys said Monday during a watch party in Opa-locka.
The collective, in coordination with groups in Orlando and other cities across U.S., got together in support of Jackson and to watch history in the making as she faced a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.
Jackson’s nomination sends a message to little girls and young Black women attorneys who look like her that they can also be a Supreme Court justice, said Miami-Dade attorney Yolanda Cash Jackson.
“The most important thing is that she is a qualified jurist,” she added.
A Miami Palmetto Senior High grad, Ketanji Brown Jackson graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1992 before attending Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review and graduated cum laude in 1996.
From 1996 to 2000, Jackson was a law clerk for several judges, including Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, whom she would replace if confirmed by the Senate. She was also an assistant federal public defender in Washington, D.C., from 2005 to 2007.
Jackson was an assistant special counsel to the U.S. Sentencing Commission for two years before serving as its vice chair and commissioner from 2010 to 2014. There, she focused on “reducing unwarranted sentencing disparities and ensuring that federal sentences were just and proportionate,” according to the White House’s website.
In 2013, Jackson was confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after she was nominated by former President Barack Obama. Eight years later, in 2021, she was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after she was nominated by President Joe Biden. In both instances she received bipartisan support, the White House said.
Jackson is an experienced and accomplished judge, said Narinah Jean-Baptiste, an attorney who graduated last year from the University of Florida’s law school.
“Words cannot describe how I’m feeling today,” she said.
Jackson is also fair and impartial, said Nakia Ruffin, an attorney and president of the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association.
“We need somebody who can see both sides and come to a fair conclusion according to the rule of law,” she said. “Our bench needs to reflect the community that it serves.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 6:36 PM.
