Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearing Day 2

Yesterday was the second day of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearing in the Senate. How is that going, I wonder? At Wa Ex, Quin Hillyer claims Judge Jackson actually sounds conservative. That's important.

For example, Jackson regularly spoke about “the greatness of this nation” being evident in how much progress the United States has made in numerous ways in just a generation or two, rather than asserting that the country is irredeemably flawed. She repeatedly spoke of “adherence to the text” of the Constitution and laws as a proper “restraint on my own authority as a judge.” Rather than saying legal texts have meanings that “evolve” with the times, she said that a text should be interpreted according to “what it meant to those who drafted it.”

One can hope, but I don't trust her. Neither does Ace, Day Two of Judge Ketanji Brown Hearings: Lies in Claiming She Doesn't Know CRT is Taught in the School Whose Board She Serves On, Lies About Why She Consistently Under-Sentences Child Pr0n Criminals. In the same post, he cited Chris Rufo, who found another interesting "inconsistency" in her testimony. Quite possibly an error of confusion, or a lie of concealment. I hope someone follows up.

Jackson's math doesn't add up. She was born in 1970 and "Faces at the Bottom of the Well" wasn't published until 1992, when she was 22 years old and a student at Harvard--during the exact timeframe that Derrick Bell was engaging in his nationally-publicized protest.

In other words, her story that her parents had "Faces at the Bottom of the Well" --a key text of critical race theory--on their coffee table when Jackson was growing up is absolutely false. Jackson made up the story and is obscuring her connection to CRT. The Senate should ask why.

Althouse, Let's watch Ted Cruz question Ketanji Brown Jackson. Two videos at the link. I would hate to be questioned by Cruz. Nick Arama at Red State, Ted Cruz Exposes the Problems in Ketanji Brown Jackson's Answers. Matt Vespa at Town Hall, Mazie Hirono Gets Wrecked By Her Own Words in Opening Supreme Court Remarks. Be fair, it's Mazie. Only Kamala is worse. Capt. Ed notes that KBJ gave pretty much my answer on court packing: Like Justice Barrett ... pass. At the Victory Girls, Jackson: Child Porn Sentence Guidelines Are Harsh And Outdated. But that's the legislatures choice, not judges. Also, Ketanji Brown Jackson: Her Decisions Are Fair Game.  Nick Arama again, WH Has Very Bad Take on Concern Over Lax Child Porn Sentences From Ketanji Brown Jackson. Dan McLaughlin@baseballcrank "Wow. The White House itself says that questioning Jackson on sentencing in child porn cases is "QAnon-signaling." This is a really unwise decision." Cernovich@Cernovich, "Most of the legal profession believes that Q Anon shaman should spend more time in prison than literal child pornographers. In that sense, KBJ is well within the mainstream of lawyers, judges, and law professors. It is good for the public to learn this. Insty, JUDGE JACKSON EXPLAINS HER SENTENCING PROCESS FOR CHILD PORNOGRAPHY OFFENDERS: "“The argument that we should be more lenient on child pornographers because modern technology makes it easier to distribute child porn is….not great.” More: Hawley Presses Jackson on Three-Month Sentence in Child-Porn Case."

Spencer Brown at Town Hall thinks Senator Kennedy Stumps Supreme Court Nominee with One Question. When does life start? Look, I'm not an abortion absolutist, but I am a biologist. Life never starts, or maybe started only once, billions of years ago. It is continuous, in the sense that life passes from one generation to the next, although individuals die. But there are three defining events in life (at least as vertebrates). First, meiosis, where the genome of an individual is split into, becoming ova or sperm, each with half of the genetic material to make an individual organism. Second, conception, where the egg and sperm from two different parents combine to make a potential new individual. Third, birth (or hatching for egg bearing species) where the new individual organism emerges into the world. Very few argue to protect gametes. The question becomes where along the continuum  from conception to birth to start to protect humans. The Warren court did an arbitrary, but generally workable job of splitting the baby with the trimester rule, no restrictions in the first trimester, some restrictions in the second, and forbidding abortion in all but the worst cases in the third. But liberals will never be happy with any line short of infanticide up to at least a few days after birth and anti-abortion folk will never be happy with any abortion. 

A concerning answer noted by Mary Chastain at LI, Ketanji Brown Jackson Can’t Define What A Woman Is: “I’m Not A Biologist”. Well, as I said, I am a biologist, so may I safely assert that a woman is an adult human female? It's the rule we've been using for thousands of years, and it seems perfectly obvious to most people, and the language is set to accommodate it. But now liberals assert that only a person can decide if they are a woman or not, regardless of genetics, or genitalia. I don't pretend to know what goes on in the mind of a so-called transwoman, but they just aren't women as the word is used by the vast majority of the world. For Judge Jackson to claim she can't define it is disingenuous, and suggests strongly how she will vote when and if trans rights cases come before the court. But that is exactly as I would expect.

Insty, ‘CREDIBLY ACCUSED:’ The Left Takes the GOP’s Bait.

For simply protesting his innocence, Kavanaugh was besmirched as the “personification of white, male privilege.” His anger over this career-ending allegation was reframed as the self-entitled rage reserved for “privileged white men who are furious about being finally held to account” or “trauma for white men unaccustomed to trauma.” The substance of the claim against him was for many immaterial. His torment was a karmic comeuppance due to those who share his accidents of birth.

This history lesson is necessary, in part, because the left is busily reminding the nation that they subordinated any universally agreed-upon understanding of justice to their pursuit of a political scalp. Republicans have only invoked the mistreatment of their nominees to establish a favorable contrast. Their strategy is to observe as much decorum as possible to showcase the impropriety of their opponents. Republicans are fortunate that progressives in political media seem happy to oblige.

Jim Treacher, Wake Me When a Republican Accuses Ketanji Brown Jackson of Rape, "Until then, it's all fair game." Capt. Ed, KBJ vs the Boof Truther: No, the Supreme Court hasn't been "bought by dark money"