A Seat at the Table

Are you familiar with the musical Hamilton? Do you remember the scene where important decisions were made about the financial futures of the new country and the choice of a city for its capital? The song was titled:  “The Room Where it Happened” It is vitally important that those in the rooms where important decisions are being made reflect the voices of the disparate groups which make up our United States of America. Representation matters, whether it is on a school board, in Congress, the White House staff, or on the Supreme Court. You think not? Just look at the current campaigns by Republicans to place people on school boards to fight against critical race theory and ban books. Ballotpedia reported almost 150 recalls attempted between 2019 and 2022; these campaigns were often being mounted against duly elected school boards and or members of color when previous years averaged around 29 each year. Fortunately, few of the attempts were successful, but that does not mean that they will cease.

This week Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced he would retire at the end of this Court session in June, pending the appointment of his replacement. Breyer, who was appointed by President Clinton in 1994, is the second-longest sitting Justice on the court. Although the court is supposed to be apolitical, Justice Breyer sided with the liberal justices most often and was frequently then in the minority, on divided decisions. Most recently, with the addition of Justice Barrett, there are only three liberals left to oppose the six conservatives. Any replacement for Breyer would not change this alignment, as President Biden is expected to nominate a person of moderate to liberal legal thinking. There was a not-so stealthy campaign to urge Breyer to step down while the Democrats have control of the Senate. What might happen after the mid-terms is a big question, although if tradition is followed, the mid-terms are usually bad for an incumbent President. Justice Ginsburg, although ill, thought that Hillary Clinton would win in 2016, so she did not choose to retire before the election. Senator McConnell, in an unprecedented move, refused to allow President Biden’s nominee to get a hearing after Justice Scalia died early in 2016, claiming it was an election year, yet rushed through Justice Barrett even after voting had already started in 2020. (As I have mentioned earlier, hypocrisy knows no boundaries with Republicans.)

However, President Biden said he would nominate an African American woman to the court when he had an opening, thus keeping a campaign promise. This has caused fury on the right, with senators and media commentators claiming he is being unfair to other qualified candidates, somehow implying that African Americans (AA) females could not be among the most qualified candidates. Currently, there are at least a dozen such talented women, judges and professors among them, who have been so identified as on the first list. Previous presidents have noted in advance that they would name a woman to the court with only white candidates in mind, never broadening the field to look elsewhere. Why does it matter if an AA woman is chosen? Many have said that this is also a matter of representation; it means something when those making serious judgments about issues, fairness, perhaps questions of life and death, or freedom and justice, understand what it might be to be deprived of such options. The court has not always shown such understanding. Certainly, the privileged prep school life of Justice Kavanaugh differed from that of Justice Sotomayor, who lived in public housing as a child, or Justice Ginsburg, who was denied employment by top New York law firms because she was a woman. Justice Barrett, who grew up in a sheltered religious environment, recently showed that she did not understand the plight of a teenager pregnant after being raped, who did not want to continue her pregnancy. She suggested that after the baby was delivered, they could drop it off at a fire station for eventual adoption under a Good Samaritan waiver. In what universe is this girl supposed to live until she delivers?

Reverend William Barber, of the Poor People’s campaign and the Moral Mondays marches, suggested on MSNBC that someone who had been a public defender might make a good justice because she would have a better understanding of the needs of poor people caught up in the justice system. His group will lead a national march to Washington in June to rally for the passage of voting rights laws. He also claimed that the court is overly vested in protecting the rights of businesses and decried the striking down by the Roberts Court of the previously effective voting rights laws.

To those who would say that there is African American representation on the Court because Justice Thomas is there, I would disagree. Thomas is quite conservative and opposes many of the issues championed by mainstream black organizations, such as affirmative action. Some have noted that his wife, Ginni Thomas, is involved in groups that have filed “friend of the court” briefs in cases the court was hearing. Thomas and his wife dined privately at the DJT White House in 2019, yet he did not recuse himself from cases involving the former president. Ginni was profiled by Jean Mayer in the New Yorker recently and is described as giving awards to those she favored, such as Mark Meadows, and going after those she opposed, such as Colonel Vindman, who spoke out about the Ukraine call by DJT that led to the first impeachment. She openly supported the marchers on January 6^th opposed the House Committee investigation and has helped sponsor a symposium where the leader of the Oath Keepers (now arrested and charged with sedition) was a speaker. She did not publicly support the rioters.

Although many say the Court is not political, what does it mean when three of the current Justices were among the horde of Republican lawyers that descended on Florida to review ballots in the 2000 election issue that came before the Rehnquist Court, regarding Bush vs Gore? As CNN reported, Roberts and Kavanaugh, both in private practice, and Barrett, a member of a participating firm, were all in Florida at various times for the recount reviews. A recent report by CNN claims the Court is now at its most political point in generations, choosing cases more on ideology than merit. For example, the New York gun case recently heard had been turned down when presented previously, but after the loss of Ginsburg, it was accepted. Precedent (known as stare decisis), usually accepted by the nominees as allowing established decisions to stand when testifying before the Senate, now also seems to be under fire as cases involving affirmative action and the Clean Water Act, previously thought to have been decisively settled, are now back before the court and, given the conservative majority, most likely will be overturned.

Who will be nominated by the President? I have no inside information here, but I am confident that it will be an African American woman who is highly qualified, most likely far more qualified than Justice Barrett, and one who will serve the interests of all Americans well. Why do I believe that? Well, possibly as was said of Ginger Rogers–“she did everything that Fred Astaire did, only backward and in high heels.” African American women have been doing those symbolic dances for many years and going higher up the ladder each time!

Earlier I had mentioned book banning which is now being revived in yet another social seizure of right-wing convictions. Pulitzer-prize-winning author and Vietnamese immigrant Viet Thanh Nguyen wrote about this topic in the New York Times on Sunday and said in part: “If our society isn’t strong enough to withstand the weight of difficult or challenging–and even hateful or problematic ideas-then something must be fixed in our society.” Do read the entire article, it is worth your time.

What are your ideas on how this ‘something’ should be fixed? Tell me in the comments.

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The numbers of Omicron variant cases in the east have dropped precipitously over the last week, although deaths are continuing to rise. There is a new offshoot called the Omicron stealth, or BA2, which is spreading rapidly, but it is not seen as more virulent. It has been identified in Europe and India. The highest percentages of illness are now seen in Alaska, Washington state, and Kentucky. Maryland has the lowest rates of fresh cases and is now 72% vaccinated. The states with the lowest vaccination rates-all around 50%, are Mississippi, Alabama, Wyoming, and Idaho.

COVID stats- NY Times:

US Totals: Total Cases: 74,328,530. New Cases: 519,421.

                  Total Deaths: 883,370. New Deaths: 2,524.

Maryland totals: Total Cases: 954,469. New Cases: 2,656.

                           Total Deaths: 13,465. New Deaths: 49.

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I send wishes for warmer temperatures to my friends in the northeast who are digging out from up to 30 inches of snow and frigid temperatures. I hesitate to think what that kind of snow would have done to this Metro area. This storm also affected the Eastern Shore, but not as bad as those further north. Think Spring, folks!

‘Til next week–Peace!