You go, girl

Soi it turns out, I guess, that Ms. Ketanji Brown Jackson did more than her share of talking last week, her very first week on the U.S. Supreme Court, and it turns out that talking as much as she did is, well, record-setting, in a way, even though strictly speaking, such records are not officially kept.

What's more, in most any organization, rookies are expected to keep their mouths shut so as to slowly get the lay of the land. That's not a hard-and-fast rule, of course, just one of those unspoken truths that gain credence over time.

But then, she might argue, she is, after all, the very first African-American woman to sit on the high court, which gives her the standing to have a say, especially as it did with respect to the discussion of voting rights, specifically as those rights have been extended to African-Americans. Trump's three appointees are considered "originalists," justices given to view the Constitution as a document beyond interpretation, precious and sacred, even, for saying exactly what it says and nothing more.

The three of them were drafted by the ex-President because they were, in fact, "originalists," a determination Trump himself made clear. When he nominated them, and when a Republican-controlled government passed on their suitability to become Supreme Court justices, everyone did so because they were conservative "originalists." They weren't going to monkey around with the law of the land because the Constitution is the law of the land. There. So be it.

On last week's court docket was a voting rights bill that sought to make judgements about voting districts color blind, which may seem a chorus of that good old song, "the American way," if such bills didn't so clearly affect political representation by minorities. 

That she spoke up as much as she did is one thing, but the substance of what she said was itself remarkable because she maintained that her research into the 14th Amendment made it perfectly clear that the framers' intent was specifically racial. "Voting rights," at the time, weren't voting rights at all. Black people--even "freedmen," had no rights at all. The 14th Amendment was anything but color blind. 

In other words the first African-American woman on the U. S. Supreme Court, nominated by Democrat Biden and considered anything but an originalist, used an originalist argument on the conservative court majority. Kind of cute, as a matter of fact. Touche!

It's nigh unto impossible for a white juror and a black juror to look back on Reconstruction in America, the Jim Crow era, and take note of exactly the same features. Way down in the soul, I can't help but think the Emmet Till story feels different to Black folks than white, even though both despise lynching.

Quite the showing, really, for a rookie turn in the lineup. Conservatives, of course, have nothing to fear since the high court is now well-heeled with conservatives. Justice Brown-Jackson's coming on board didn't change the fact that six jurors see things from the right, versus only three--all women, by the way-- from the left. 

Still, I can't help but smile.