Binders Full of Black Women
The Biden administration’s decision to focus on diversity will severely harm the eventual Supreme Court nominee's credibility in the eyes of the public and standing with future colleagues.
By repeatedly promising to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court during his candidacy, President Biden teed up the racially charged debate we are now having about retiring Justice Stephen Breyer’s replacement. This is Kamala Harris 2.0. Both times, Biden painted himself in a corner by limiting his pick to a Black female. Ilya Shapiro, newly minted director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution and expert on the Supreme Court, is in hot water for his “inartful” tweets but his criticism is valid. Of course, this myopic focus on race leads to an assumption that the eventual nominee’s resume is not up to par even though it might very well be impressive. It does a great disservice to them and the institution.
The liberal blue checks on Twitter are angry that the race and sex of the eventual nominee are being discussed. What did they expect? They made it about race and then have the audacity to be upset the discussion is (insert shocked face) all about the potential nominee’s race.
The administration’s decision to focus on diversity will severely harm the justice’s credibility in the eyes of the public and standing with future colleagues.
When a conservative pundit questions limiting the shortlist to those who check the DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) boxes, it is not an attack on Black women or an attempt to downplay their accolades. Are we no longer allowed to vet candidates? Are we not supposed to care about their qualifications because they have the right amount of melanin or number of chromosomes?
With that being said, whoever ends up being the nominee may be just as qualified as any of the male judges who would have been considered. More likely than not, I won’t agree with their judicial philosophy but that has nothing to do with inherent characteristics.
The media is obsessed with racial bean counting whether it is the number of Black quarterbacks, head coaches or CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. A discussion about opportunity and access is needed but achieving parity at the expense of process only creates another set of problems.
As conservatives, we have to be able to separate our issues with the selection process from the nominee themselves. Unlike the Left, we should evaluate their resumes and base our judgment on their qualifications. We have to fight the urge to reflexively blast them because of how they were chosen.
Leftists point to the decades of an all-white, male-dominated bench. I’ll cede the point that some appointees may have received their positions due to connections rather than qualifications. That’s how the world works.
The Supreme Court was first established in 1790. The first woman was confirmed in 1981. That is a pretty astounding fact. There are currently three female justices. Proponents of DEI believe the court should reflect the makeup of American society. This argument is predicated on the idea that justices are merely a compilation of lived experience, ideological positions and cultural mores instead of intellectuals who have the education and legal background which equips them to be just arbiters of the nation’s laws.
As for those promoting the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris, I don’t think it is going to happen. You can’t exactly maintain the veneer of impartiality when you select a sitting vice president who has made countless statements about policy for years. She’d have to recuse herself from many cases due to her role in crafting the administration’s policies. Justice Elena Kagan recuses herself routinely due to her former role as solicitor general in the Obama administration.
It will be interesting to watch Democrats grapple with the intersectionality conflicts caused by their embrace of identity politics. U.S. District Court Judge Michelle Childs, a recent nominee to the DC Court of Appeals and favorite of Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), is on the shortlist. She checks the Black, female, non-Ivy League grad boxes but, early in her career, she represented corporate interests. Oh, what a tangled web…