Sens. Rubio, Scott, take Miami’s Ketanji Brown Jackson across the ‘finish line’ | Editorial
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Miami’s Ketanji Brown Jackson gets historic Supreme Court nomination
President Joe Biden nominated federal appeals Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Supreme Court, a historic pick which will make the Miami Palmetto High School graduate the first Black woman on the nation’s high court if she is confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
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Ketanji Brown Jackson has made it from short list to finalist. From Palmetto Senior High superstar to a starring role as President Biden’s nominee for the highest court in the land.
Friday morning, a statement from the White House confirmed that Biden has chosen Brown Jackson, currently serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Miami can boast about one of its own. Miami-Dade Public Schools has bragging rights about yet another stellar graduate on the national stage.
This is a promise kept for the president. He vowed during his campaign that he would nominate a Black woman for the high court, a historic move.
And now comes the hard part, that last mile of Brown Jackson’s ever upward trajectory.
“Now that the White House has given her the crown, I’m going to lobby the senators — all of the Republicans senators,” Miami U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson told the Editorial Board. “We will have all of our Democrats on board, but I don’t want her win by a tight margin. I want her to get the vote of the [entire] Senate.”
That means, first and foremost, that Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott need to get out and push this nomination, strongly making the case that Brown Jackson, indeed, should be on the Supreme Court. And, given her depth of legal and judicial experience and — according to those who know her personally and professionally — the depth of her integrity, she should.
Rubio and Scott can set the tone — a civil one, we hope. We have seen the raucous and politically fraught hearings for some of the most recent Supreme Court nominees, and it wasn’t a good look.
“I will ask my fellow Floridians in the Senate to take this one over the finish line,” Wilson told the Editorial Board.
Yes, a victory for someone of Brown Jackson’s stature will be a victory, too, for America.
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This story was originally published February 25, 2022 at 11:25 AM.
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