Not only does Jackson's confirmation mark the first time that a Black woman will on the high court in its 233-year history, and the first time that the...
Revised at 4:40 p.m. to include additional reactions throughout.
“I think that it has always been amazing, given that so many criminal issues are decided by the Supreme Court, that so few Supreme Court justices have criminal-defense experience,” Wattley said. “The background as a federal public defender to me is a market measure of her diversity as well.” “I know what women bring historically and in the present,” Washington added. “I know the power that we walk in and live in. I know the things we are able to do as life-givers and life-bringers. And I also know of all the [expletive] we have to navigate.”
Faith Johnson, a former Dallas County district attorney, called Thursday’s vote “proof that the American system works.” “I don’t know many people who could sit there and be attacked the way she was and respond with confidence and grace,” said Lynn Richardson, Dallas County’s chief public defender. Jackson’s grace during those hearings, Richardson said, will be a model for generations to come.
UNT-Dallas law student Henry Williams said he makes the same point Sen. Cory Booker did during the confirmation hearings: When he looks at Jackson, he sees his mother. And he’s confident that with her as a Supreme Court justice, law-school applications for Black students will grow.