By Kaveri Pillai ’23
Opinion Editor
Content warning: This article discusses racism and misogyny.
On April 7, 2022, the U.S. Senate confirmed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, making her the first Black female to serve as justice. The 53-47 vote for Jackson highlighted the bipartisan support she received in the Senate. After two grueling days of intensive questioning regarding her judicial record and thoughts on controversial topics such as Critical Race Theory and abortion, Jackson’s appointment to the Supreme Court was celebrated by supporters as a groundbreaking win for Black women across the country.
While this momentous day should forever be cherished and celebrated, the events of the confirmation hearings within the walls of the Senate seemed to cast a shadow over this milestone. Picking on judicial rulings, achievements and failures are standard to Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Yet, what we witnessed last month was not simply an inquiry into Jackson’s personal life, but also a study in how Republican senators responded to a liberal-leaning Black female nominee. The way in which questions were posed by the GOP’s Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Ted Cruz was disruptive, brash and insulting to Jackson’s accomplishments. These Republican senators interacted with Jackson in a manner that undermined the respectability of the judicial position and the political decorum of the Senate.
This style of GOP hooliganism, while seen before with GOP voters, has become publicly projected by GOP politicians as well.
Hooliganism is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “rowdy, violent or disruptive behavior.” This behavior by GOP voters can be traced back to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. A Nov. 1, 2021 article from The Guardian reported on GOP voters’ attitude toward using violence to a political end, noting that 39 percent of Americans who believed Trump won the 2020 election also believed that violence was required to overturn the election results. Pictures from the Capitol Hill insurrection highlight the complete disrespect shown toward the lawful democratic process of elections, disregard for government property and reckless use of arms and other forms of violence. What makes the case of GOP hooliganism concerning in the case of Jackson’s confirmation hearings is the fact that it has spilled over from voters to elected officials. Even without any instances of physical violence, the articulation of the GOP disapproval of Jackson resembled the previously-seen unruly behavior of GOP voters. The nomination of a liberal-leaning judge led to heated discussions amongst Republicans like Graham and Cruz. A March 31 Forbes article reported Graham’s decision to not support Jackson’s appointment to the Supreme Court. “[Jackson] will not be deterred by the rule of law when it comes to liberal causes,” Graham said on the Senate floor, making Jackson’s liberal judicial record and beliefs a target for GOP senators.
Graham wasn’t alone in his quest to nip Jackson’s appointment in the bud. A March 22 New York Times article delved into the interaction between Cruz and Jackson in which Cruz displayed stacks of children’s books, asking Jackson if she believed it was okay that babies were being taught about racism. Further, as noted in a March 23 Texas Tribune article, during his 20-minute-long questioning, Cruz barely allowed Jackson to get a word in when asking her about her sentencing of child pornographers. In response to Cruz’s constant interruptions and remarks about what he viewed as light sentences, the Senate Judiciary Chair, Democrat Dick Durbin, had to interject and bring order to the Senate. This instance of Cruz posing long-drawn questions and interrupting Jackson while she attempted to answer is an example of how men continuously try to get their word in, regardless of what the woman is trying to say in response.
The total disregard for respect for Jackson was seen again when Graham made volatile remarks about the political left and belittled its decision to nominate Jackson. “Every group that wants to pack the court, that believes this court is a bunch of right-wing nuts who are going to destroy America, that considered the Constitution trash, all wanted you picked,” Graham told Jackson, according to a March 22 New York Post article.
With a 51-year-old liberal-leaning Black woman being incessantly questioned and critiqued by conservative-leaning white men, it is fair to say that these GOP senators were relying on age-old tactics of racially-driven and gendered exclusionary mechanisms to smear Jackson’s reputation. Instances of interrupting Jackson, questioning her beliefs and past sentencings and getting into loud disagreements with the Senate chair all highlight how little the GOP senators recognized Jackson as a qualified candidate and as a then-potential Supreme Court justice. Moreover, thanks to the GOP senators’ raised voices and informal language, the once-respected political decorum of this process disintegrated during their questioning.
It is alarming how racially driven and gendered the entire GOP attack to undermine Jackson’s credibility was. This textbook portrayal of the authoritative white man, played by Graham and Cruz, hearkens back to the bigger issue of the lack of tolerance and inclusion that is now synonymous with the GOP. Jackson’s appointment, while commendable, was preceded by vicious and chauvinistic attacks on her achievements. The unnecessary challenging and interruption, while typical in male-dominated fields, also compromises the integrity of the political decorum. If the GOP wishes to maintain its position as a respectable political party, there is an urgent need to rethink the way these politicians present themselves in the public sphere.