Pat Toomey should vote to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson | Opinion

Will Sen. Pat Toomey vote to confirm the Honorable Ketanji Brown Jackson to the United States Supreme Court? If so, it would assure Black women and girls in Pennsylvania that when their accomplishments and qualifications are outstanding, as are Judge Jackson’s, their aspirations will not be curtailed because of race or gender. Or will he adopt the dishonest, demeaning propaganda promulgated by his Republican colleagues?

Either way, Toomey’s vote will be recorded in history as part of his legacy.

Judge Jackson appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee as one of the most qualified candidates for the position in the history of the court. She graduated from Harvard Law School as well as from Harvard University, worked in private legal practice, clerked for a Supreme Court justice, and was vice chair of the federal Sentencing Commission before serving as a federal District Court judge for eight years, then as a federal Appeals Court judge.

But it was her service as a public defender that made her uniquely qualified to serve on the nation’s highest court. Yet, instead of commending Judge Jackson for her public defender service, without which the Sixth Amendment constitutional right to counsel has no meaning, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee used that work as the linchpin for a negative message to their base.

They accused her of being soft on criminals, particularly child pornographers, when she deviated from sentencing guidelines (as many judges do), or failed to blindly adopt prosecutors’ recommendations for sentences. She was then questioned about whether critical race theory influenced her sentencing — an absurd question to which any judge or lawyer who had ever been in a criminal courtroom would have said, “What?”

Their purpose was to first communicate that here was a Black woman who defended criminals as a lawyer, and a judge who was soft on criminals, particularly child pornographers. Then by raising the controversial concept of critical race theory, which has nothing whatsoever to do with court proceedings, they sought to link the race of criminal defendants to the judge imposing their sentences. The actions of these Republicans were calculated and contrived, designed to create a pretext of opposing a judge who was supposedly soft on crime.

All the while sitting before them was an intelligent, accomplished, respectful, competent, considerate Black woman, who happens to be a judge, and who was wholly undeserving of such demeaning disrespect and false accusations.

Sen. Toomey will have the opportunity to vote on Judge Jackson’s confirmation as soon as next week. While most Republicans will not support her confirmation, consideration for the Black women and girls who live in Pennsylvania should be sufficient grounds for the senator to take a stand against his party, particularly since he is not running for reelection.

In 2018, Sen. Toomey voted for Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, despite the credible accusations of sexual assault against him, and his disrespectful demeanor during his hearings. In defense of that vote, the senator said it was clear to him that Judge Kavanaugh had the “character, intellect, experience, and judicial philosophy to be an outstanding Supreme Court justice.”

Surely Sen. Toomey can see that Judge Jackson has the character, intellect, experience, and judicial philosophy — as well as the judicial demeanor — to be an outstanding Supreme Court justice. Thus, based upon his articulated standard for a Supreme Court justice, Judge Jackson should have his support.

But there is also the historic significance of this nomination of the first Black woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice. The hopes and aspirations of so many Pennsylvanians supporting her demand that Sen. Toomey make the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson a part of his legacy. Here’s hoping he will rise to the occasion and do so.

Doris Pechkurow is a retired Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge who served for 18 years. She began her legal career as a lawyer at the Defender Association of Philadelphia.