OPINION:
Talk about blind justice. This lady does not even know what a “woman” is. And she wants to be on the United States Supreme Court?
Where does President Biden find these people? Apparently, the only thing Mr. Biden remembers from cheating his way through law school is the line about how “the law is an ass.”
Well, he sure found one!
In Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s defense, can you imagine having to follow Justice Amy Coney Barrett in the hot seat before the Senate Judiciary Committee? As the world now knows, Judge Jackson ain’t no Justice Barrett.
Unprepared, evasive and more than a little defensive, Judge Jackson falls far short of her predecessor. Justice Barrett faced fierce legal questioning and a barrage of unfair slimes from Senate Democrats on the committee and she disarmed every last question.
Without a single note.
Not so with Judge Jackson, who has enjoyed respectful and largely gentle questioning from Republicans on the committee.
In fact, it’s been all softballs for Judge Jackson, who found herself utterly baffled Wednesday by the most elementary question imaginable.
“Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman’?” asked Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican.
That’s like one of those super obvious questions you ask someone who just arrived at the insane asylum and you want to evaluate just how far her cheese has slid off her cracker. But it stone-cold stumped Judge Jackson.
“Can I provide a definition?” the inexplicably confused jurist responded. She blinked. “No. I can’t.”
At this point in the insane asylum registration process, the nurse radios an orderly for a straight jacket.
But this is not a mental health institution. Clearly. It’s a Supreme Court nomination hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee to fill a vacancy on the United States Supreme Court.
“You can’t?” a surprised Mrs. Blackburn replied.
“Not in this context,” the flummoxed judge responded. “I’m not a biologist.”
At the insane asylum, orderlies would be clearing the padded room. But, again, this is the Senate Judiciary Committee so the process proceeded as if everything was perfectly normal.
Even more astonishing is that Judge Jackson is married to an actual human doctor. Who performs surgeries. On human bodies. You would think that over the course of a 25-year marriage (and two children!) the biological topic of what a “woman” is might have come up.
Judge Jackson got into even trickier territory as Mrs. Blackburn asked about legal issues and, you know, Supreme Court rulings. Specifically, the senator pressed the judge on the High Court’s majority opinion in U.S. v. Virginia, the seminal case that struck down Virginia Military Institute’s male-only admissions policy.
You don’t even have to go to law school to know that case.
Mrs. Blackburn quoted the famous majority opinion, written by the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“Physical differences, between men and women, however, are enduring,” Mrs. Blackburn quoted Justice Ginsburg’s opinion. “The two sexes are not fungible.”
Mrs. Blackburn then turned to Judge Jackson: “Do you agree with Justice Ginsburg that there are physical differences between men and women that are enduring?”
Haunted by her ignorance of simple grade-school biology, Judge Jackson dodged again.
Even more amazing — considering she is auditioning for the highest court in the land — Judge Jackson admitted ignorance of basic law in one of the most famous cases in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Um,” she began. “Senator, respectfully, I am not familiar with that particular quote or case, so it’s hard for me to comment.”
Oooof.
In any sane world, it would be game over, lights out. Judge Jackson would be sent home.
But this is the United States Senate with Mr. Biden in the White House and the prevailing jurisprudential philosophy remains: “The Law is an Ass.”
• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at The Washington Times.
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