About Time for a Black Woman as a Supreme Court Justice
It's All Politics and with Well-Qualified Candidates
Supreme Court nominations and confirmations have always been patently political. Candidate Ronald Reagan, attempting to refute charges that he was insensitive to women’s rights, said he would name a woman to the highest court. It helped him secure the female vote. He followed through and nominated the first female justice, Sandra Day O’Connor. In 2020, Donald Trump, seeking female voters and trying to shift attention from his handling of the pandemic, announced he would name a woman to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He nominated Amy Coney Barrett.
So, what’s the hullaballoo about President Biden vowing to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court? It is, of course, the fact that he is going to nominate a Black woman.
Race is the sine qua non (indispensible requirement) of modern Republican politics. All the Republican state voter restriction laws are fundamentally aimed at suppressing the votes of people of color. Trump’s incitement of the January 6th insurrection was ultimately based on his racism. He falsely blamed and continues to blame states with significant Black voting populations for stealing the election from him. (And, the insurrectionists were heavily made up of neo-Nazis and white supremacists.)
